Ally McCoist believes N’Golo Kante is still a much better holding midfielder than West Ham’s Declan Rice amid speculations linking the latter with a move to Chelsea.
Rice had been heavily linked with a return to Chelsea during the summer transfer window following his stellar performances for West Ham.
The highly-rated Englishman failed to leave a mark during his time at Chelsea’s youth academy before making his senior breakthrough at the London Stadium.
Desperate to land a versatile defensive midfielder to anchor his lines, Frank Lampard has been trying to bring back the 21-year-old.
Although the Blues failed to pull off the deal, Rice’s proposed return would’ve come at the expense of N’Golo Kante.
The 29-year-old World Cup winner has tumbled down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge. A lack of game-time was expected to push the Frenchman away from London during the transfer window.
But Inter Milan and Manchester United both failed to meet Chelsea’s asking price. That ultimately saw Kante stay put.
Yet, talkSPORT host Adrian Durham is of the opinion Lampard should have replaced the former Leicester City star with the up-and-coming Rice during the summer.
Ex-Rangers hero Ally McCoist, however, finds such a prospect to be unreasonable, as he believes Kante is a better option at the moment.
“Declan Rice is a fantastic player and will continue to improve, longer-term he might be an option [for Chelsea],” he said, as transmitted by the talkSPORT.
“But I listened to the discussion between Adrian Durham and Goughie yesterday, and I’m just not having Adrian!
“His level of reasoning was that Kante was substituted in the World Cup final, right? What kind of argument is that to have? He’s got a World Cup winner’s medal, mate!
“I’ll tell you right now, I don’t disagree with the opinion that longer-term Declan Rice would be a great option, whether that’s for Chelsea or anybody else.
“But at this moment in time, for me, Kante would still be the number one holding player in the world.”
Strong with the ball at his feet as he is at winning it back, Kante has been Chelsea’s driving force since joining from Leicester in 2016.
His tactical awareness, tenacious pressing, and composure on the ball make him one of the most highly-rated holding midfielders in Europe’s top-five leagues.
That said, Lampard may have done himself a favor by keeping the France international on board.
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