Manchester United Pushing For N'Golo Kante; Lampard Responds To Exit Rumors

Manchester United is still keen on signing Chelsea star N’Golo Kante, but Frank Lampard is not willing to let him go.

Chelsea is arguably the biggest winner in terms of signings this summer. Following the successful transfers of Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell, Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech, it is believed that the stacked Blues side is now short in space for one of its current stars, Kante.

Big clubs across Europe’s top five leagues have their eyes on Kante this window, with United and Inter Milan leading the race. However, the Red Devils are now the frontrunners to land Kante as they could “easily” pay Chelsea’s €60 million ($71 million) price tag for the Frenchman, Italian outlet Tuttosport reported.

According to the report, United’s bid for Kante is an exclusive permanent deal, which means the club is not willing to downgrade it to a loan deal.

Inter, on the other hand, has been forced to wait. The Nerazzurri, compared to United, is having trouble with funds for the transfer move and would have to sell either Milan Skriniar or Marcelo Brozović to collect €40 million to €50 million ($47 million to $59 million).

However, even if the Italian side manages to raise this figure, its next obstacle would be convincing Chelsea to lower Kante’s value, the report said.

As for Kante, there is no guarantee that the player wants a move away from Stamford Bridge. However, the report suggested that if Chelsea will succeed in its pursuit of Declan Rice from West Ham, Kante might lose his spot on Lampard’s squad.

Despite the transfer talks regarding his star midfielder, however, Chelsea boss Lampard has confirmed that he wants to keep Kante for a longer period of time. In a recent interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Lampard said that he is aware that clubs are chasing Kante, but he knows the player is still valuable to his current squad.

“I think pretty much every club in the world would want N’Golo Kante,” the Chelsea boss said. “I have seen those reports as well. He is an incredible player and person and I certainly don’t want to lose him. He’s fundamental in terms of what I’m trying to do.”

“We can obviously talk about the attacking players we have but someone like N’Golo and the work he does in midfield,” Lampard continued. “It was a difficult year for him last year because of the injuries. He came into the season with an injury and it was a domino effect through the year. It was probably a culmination of four or five years of games, so I’m really excited to have him fit. He looks fresh, he’s a big deal to me.”