Leicester City: Ranieri urges a warm reception for Kante
Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri urges fans to give N’Golo Kante a warm welcome back to the King Power ahead of tomorrow’s Clash with Chelsea.
Leicester City’s former French international left life in the East Midlands to play under new Chelsea boss Antonio Conte after the blues triggered his release clause this summer .
The 25 year old came to Leicester City for just £5m following a move from French side Stade Malherbe Caen in Ligue 1.
Since then, Kante won the Premier League with the foxes as well as almost getting his hands on the Euro trophy in the summer following their narrow defeat to Portugal.
Described as ‘the next Claude Makélélé’, Kante was hot stuff in the summer but it was Chelsea who managed to convince him to leave.
Had both Jamie Vardy and PFA ‘Player of The Year’ Riyad Mahrez
also left, maybe the media wouldn’t have portrayed Kante as a villain, however it was only N’Golo who left from the fabulous trio.
Following speculation of a shock move to Arsenal, both Mahrez and Vardy elected to stay after being offered improved contracts from the foxes.
Speaking on the matter, Ranieri said:
“I am very happy and I will give to him a very warm welcome back and I am sure also our fans they must appreciate what he did last season and give him a warm welcome back”
”I will be very happy if our fans clap him at the beginning and afterwards he is an enemy.”
“They must understand that when arrives a big team it is difficult to say no. For this reason I say thank you to Jamie Vardy and his family, and to Riyad when they decided to stay here. For us it was important to maintain everybody.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 15 : N’Golo Kante of Leicester City in action with Ruben Loftus-Cheek of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Leicester City at Stamford Bridge on May 15th, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Clearly there is no bad blood between Ranieri and N’Golo Kante and the charismatic Italian will hope that fans feel the same way.
In regards to Kante’s future with the London giants, he believes that N’Golo can be every bit as important to Chelsea as he was to Leicester City.
“He was very important for us and I think he was even more important for us than at Chelsea because Chelsea have so many big players,”
“I saw him in the last matches he played in front of the defensive line to recover balls. For us he made another kind of job, but it is okay.”
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