Chelsea transfer news: The Blues lost out on years of N'Golo Kante at his best and Mauricio Pochettino will now have to work without the midfield monster.
"53. No changes at the break and little chances so far this half - Kante has been everywhere all game, if we can bypass him we might be in business!" The Manchester City Twitter admin knew what was up.
It was just one night in Baku that will be looked upon perhaps with regret, perhaps not. Chelsea ended the day with a 4-1 win over fierce London rivals Arsenal, they lifted a second Europa League trophy and continued their 100% record of winning the competition.
While Arsenal were playing to get into the Champions League having finished fifth - only two points off Chelsea in third but their fate sealed before the final day - the Blues were having a laugh. Maurizio Sarri, the maligned and misunderstood former banker that was said not to be fit for the club due to his lack of trophies, won one against Arsenal.
It was a grand old time for those that travelled around the world and back to the farthest pits of Azerbaijan. The thought of a trip back for Arsenal's followers made it sweater. Olivier Giroud danced and revelled in scoring against his former employers. A team that had become fractured throughout the season had stormed the final and done it without much of a care.
He lifted the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup in the mean time. He played in the Nations League for France in 2021, reached three FA Cups finals and a League Cup final. But his body wasn't totally in it and from the summer of 2019, that night in Baku, he played just 127 club games. Considering it makes up for just over half of his seven year Chelsea career, it is less than half of his total amount of games for the club.
In that time, he had to miss the 2022 World Cup for France and was a suffering reflection of the Kante that had once been able to carry the weight of an entire midfield on his back. That season he was doing something new as it was, scoring four goals and assisting four in the league.
It accounted for nearly a quarter of his total Chelsea output as Sarri experimented and riled up fans and pundits with a more attacking Kante. In a world where Pep Guardiola has John Stones surging into the box, football was not ready to see Kante do it.
That's one of the many Kante myths. He was never a true defensive midfielder. He was not an anchor like Makele or Nemanja Matic. This was a roaming predator with a hunter-seeker mind for tracking down the ball, searching and destroying. He covered the entire pitch (and the 30% of the world not taken up by water, if you believe Facebook from the time).
The change Sarri made to his position was to press high and get into the box more, apply bodies to the attack and win the ball back earlier. It was not moving Kante massively from his previous role, though he now had more freedom in a three-man midfield than a double-pivot.
The fact that he managed to come back to be such a pivotal player in the 2021 run to the Champions League is frankly astonishing. By this point he had been in tatters for a long time. Injuries came and went, keeping him out every other week. Entering his 30s he was still crucial to the side, but only when he played.
Thomas Tuchel described him as the club's Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah. Kante was the world class player that made it into any side. He was fully committed to the cause, humble and heroic. But as one of the club's top earners, it was always hard to justify an extension to the contract.
He missed the last four games of the season with yet another injury. There was no send-off to the fans, no deserved farewell. Under the circumstances he really did not need to be playing. Once more there was nothing to gain but the chance of a few extra wins.
His career effectively ended as an elite option from a match that mattered little. Bursts of top class performances would come and go, reminding everyone of just how unique and untouchable he was at his best but to be Mbappe or Salah there has to be consistency, there has to be volume of evidence and in the final years of Kante at Stamford Bridge that simply did not exist.
While it was Frank Lampard that tried to use Kante this time for a run of games that had no impact on the season, it is maybe fitting that his time comes to end in a circle to how that long, drawn out process started. With Chelsea just wanting more of Kante.
The hamstring injury on the second day of the season against Tottenham in August felt final and proved to be so. A three month lay-off dragged into the new year, that became March and soon enough it was Bruno Saltor that played him next. Kante missed the entirity of Graham Potter and now won't get Mauricio Pochettino either.
The fact that a player that has won the Premier League and Champions League as well as domestic trophies, a World Cup and blessed the hearts of everyone watching could still leave the game with so much that could have been is an eternal struggle for Kante. Someone that left nothing on the pitch but had extra to give that his body would not allow. To go out injured is not the way that this character should be remembered.
He will get his reward for one of the best peaks of Premier League history when he goes to the Middle East, hopefully to rest and take it easy because he is one of those that deserves it most. If the Saudi Pro League can just bypass Kante they might have a chance, it's not likely, though.
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