French Expert Julien Laurens: Arsenal Turned N’Golo Kanté Down For This Reason

By The Editor
on 29th March 2017

Julien Laurens on how Arsenal missed out on Kante…

“Arsenal didn’t think Kanté ‘had enough’ for them” pic.twitter.com/KRyUpBHv06

— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) March 29, 2017

French expert Julien Laurens revealed that Arsenal had attempted to sign N’Golo Kanté twice, but chose to turn him down before he joined Leicester City in 2015.

Kanté was at French side Caen at the time and Laurens reports that Arsenal scout Giles Grimandi regularly watched the destructive midfielder though Arsene Wenger didn’t pursue him.

After a stellar season with Leicester City, winning the Premier League in fairytale fashion, Kanté had a release clause in his contract of £20million, although Chelsea ended up paying much more than that to secure his services (via The Sun).

Wenger instead decided to splash the cash on Granit Xhaka, and the two midfielders have had contrasting seasons in the Premier League as Kanté drives Chelsea towards a second league title in three years.

“They looked close, Giles Grimandi the French scout went to see him a lot,” Laurens said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“They just didn’t think he had enough to make it in their team, and then it was too late. They tried to sign him last summer and he decided to go to Chelsea and they were on that as well.”

Kanté may have been a forgivable miss had we not seen a trend where Wenger is continuously missing out on the market he supposedly has an advantage in.

Wenger’s last find from France was Bacary Sagna, in terms of a signing who was an instant hit, while he’s missed out on some top talent since.

This could be a further illustration that young players are more interested in competing for the biggest trophies early on rather than catering to their embryonic careers.

Source: BBC Radio 5 Live