Is Gueye the new Kante?

Everton have signed Idrissa Gueye from Aston Villa, making him the club’s first buy since Steve Walsh’s arrival as director of football. Adam Bate looks at why Walsh might see the midfielder as his next N’Golo Kante…

According to Claudio Ranieri, he spent much of last summer being pestered by his head of recruitment at Leicester’s Belvoir Drive training ground. “Kante, Claudio,” said Steve Walsh. “Kante.” With Walsh now Everton’s new director of football, there’s no need for persuasion tactics. He’s been quick to make Idrissa Gueye the club’s first signing since his arrival.

It’s tempting to think that the reasons are similar. Walsh and his technical scouts identified that N’Golo Kante made more tackles, 176, than any other player in France’s top division in 2014/15 and correctly suspected he could repeat the feat. It wasn’t a total success as Kante’s numbers dipped – he managed only 175 in last season’s Premier League.

Kante’s brilliant work in midfield helped propel Leicester to their unlikely title triumph. The dynamic midfielder not only topped the stats for number of tackles but for interceptions, too. However, what is really interesting is that despite enduring such a difficult campaign with bottom-club Aston Villa, Gueye was the closest man …

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