N’Golo Kanté ‘the missing piece of the puzzle’ for Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan — reports

Transfer targets in football can often be long-term, spanning multiple seasons and multiple transfer windows. As such, it’s no surprise that Inter Milan are reportedly still probing the idea of signing our dear N’Golo Kanté, despite Chelsea’s hard “not-for-sale” stance throughout the past summer (and many summers before).

According to Canal+ (via Daily Mail), Kanté is still a “priority target” for the Serie A side just as before, with Conte deeming the 29-year-old as a potential key addition to his side. It’s worth noting that Inter haven’t quite had the blistering start that they were hoping for this season, sitting in 7th position after as many games, 5 points behind league-leaders and in-town rivals, AC Milan, and are therefore, looking at reinforcements for the squad already, with Olivier Giroud and Emerson Palmieri also reemerging as targets.

Along with Inter, Real Madrid have been mentioned as another club who are monitoring Kanté’s situation, with the France international’s current contract expiring in 2023.

Gazzetta dello Sport (via Sport Witness) claim that Kanté is the “missing piece” — a term we might associate with Declan Rice — whom Conte is looking for in order to complete his Inter Milan puzzle, and will look for a player with similar attributes in case he can’t land him.

While it’s true that Kanté is getting a bit older, he’s still a pivotal member of the squad as seen by his minutes on the pitch this season as well as Lampard’s high praise for him. If anything, Jorginho is the most likely midfielder to leave at the moment, with the potentially incoming Declan Rice likely to play alongside, or rotate with Kanté.

Therefore, as always, Inter can kindly (or not so kindly) go try their shenanigans elsewhere.