Chelsea may well have identified their replacement for N’Golo Kante, in the form of fellow Frenchman Aurelien Tchouameni.
Tchouameni, a 21-year-old defensive midfielder at Monaco, was thrust into the spotlight following a fantastic 2020/21 season, where he was named Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year and was also included in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year.
And it’s not hard to see why he has received so much praise and attention.
According to a graphic courtesy of Goaltergeist, Tchouaméni is the best player in Europe’s big five leagues when it comes to recovering possession.
The chart measures ‘The percentage of presses that are Successful v. Interceptions + Tackles Won per 90'.
It finds that Tchouameni is far better than every other player included in the study, including long-time Chelsea target Declan Rice.
With stats as impressive as that, many Blues fans believe that the club should sign Tchouaméni as the long-term successor to the brilliant Kante.
The 30-year-old is one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players, who still has several more years left at the top of the game and is in talks to extend his contract beyond its current expiry in 2023.
But when the time eventually comes to replace him, the task will not be easy, as players as good at recovering possession as Kante don’t come around often.
Chelsea would do well then to secure Tchouameni’s signature as soon as possible, especially as Monaco are reportedly willing to sell him for just £15million, less-than-half what Chelsea paid for Kante in 2016.
