From Tony Hall: Chelsea & Leicester
Hi Myles,
Great piece but you forgot to mention Kante, the little midfielder.
Everyone raves about Mahrez and Vardy understandably so but Kante has been a find. I have heard Arsenal are interested in Leicester’s scout Steve Walsh, who seems to be doing an excellent job.
As for Chelsea, they are an absolute shower. I don’t feel sorry for any team who the riches they have, the youth set-up they have that is never utilised, the 35 + plus players they have on loan and championship winning and Champions league winning players they have at their disposal.
To be where they are is criminal. This isn’t downing tools and refusing to play for the manager, this is just giving up.
Moaninho gets no sympathy from me, he is an odious man.
Fantastic manager, clearly, but who is the last player he developed from the youth? I can only think of Varane. When was the last time he was successful with a club more than 3 years.
I am no AKB but compared to Moaninho, Wenger is a more palatable taste to savour.
Myles says:
Kante is a mighty atom with a prodigious work ethic.
Didn’t think that was his best game, though, as Kante was sometimes chasing the ball 20 yards further up the field than I wanted him to be. But that’s how he does it. He attacks when Leicester don’t have the ball and shows no respect to bigger and more famous opponents.
Kante is the polar opposite of Claude Makelele, who fooled crowds, opponents and refs for years.
Close re-viewings of his techniques eventually revealed to me that most of his fouls were movements of five or seven inches. When his opponent fell over, Makelele tumbled over with him and got up with his arms out wide and a smile that said, “What could I do ref? He ran straight into me!”
Makelele didn’t get away with murder, but he got away with judo and other martial arts.
An artful assassin of the ambush who was hugely missed when he left Real Madrid.
Makelele was on £15,000 a week while the Zidane & the galacticos were on £90,000.