West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has revealed that he believes Besiktas star Atiba Hutchinson is as good as Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante.
Bilic underlined that Atiba is worthy of comparison with Kante and that he has played an instrumental role in the Black Eagles resurgence over the past four seasons.
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“Perhaps Atiba is even better than Kante,” Bilic was quoted as saying by Turkish-Football.
“Atiba is the most consistent player, he has been the rock of Besiktas for four years, provides balance and keeps the balance.
“He plays the same role as Kante but they have a few differences.
“Kante rarely makes a passing mistake, I actually think he has the capability to create assists as well if he wants.
“Kante loves to intercept balls, Atiba is the same.
“If you ask be Atiba is a great player, he always gets out of trouble and does so much for the team.”
Bilic said that he believes players who play Kante’s role in football often go under the radar.
“It all depends where you are from, who spots you and the position you play,” he added.
Bilic signed Atiba from Dutch giants PSV when he was manager of Besiktas.
The Canada international has gone onto become a key player for the Black Eagles and was part of the title winning side last season.
Bilic who now coaches West Ham has attempted to bring Atiba to East London but Besiktas rejected his €3.5 million offer.
Besiktas president Fikret Orman was quoted by the Evening Standard as saying: “I am going to have talks with Atiba Hutchinson, he has said he wants to move to England.
“West Ham made a €3.5 million offer but we want more for him. As I said we will decide his future after we hold talks.”
Besiktas are currently first in the Turkish league and take on Olympiakos in the Europa League Last 16 second-leg tie against Olympiakos tonight.
