Claudio Ranieri: 'N'Golo Kante is irreplaceable'

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has admitted that, no matter who he brings in this summer, replacing N'Golo Kante in the engine room is an impossible task.

The France international, who was rated by many as the Foxes' Player of the Season in their historic title-winning campaign, departed for Chelsea in July for a fee of £30m.

Ranieri has since moved to bring in Nampalys Mendy as a near like-for-like alternative, while Daniel Amartey stepped in for the 2-1 win over Swansea City on Saturday afternoon, but the City boss admits that he will never truly replace Kante.

"I don't want to speak of Kante. There is only one - there isn't another in the world. He has gone and now we need to move on," Sky Sports News quotes him as saying.

"But Amartey played very, very well. He now knows very well the Premier League. He can play centre-back, central midfielder, right-back, right winger and I am very pleased with him. He played very well, was solid, strong and recovered a lot of balls."

Kante has played all 270 minutes of Chelsea's Premier League campaign thus far, helping his new side to three wins from three.