Former AC Milan midfielder Demetrio Albertini has urged the Rossoneri to sign Charles De Ketelaere but to not stop there in their quest to strengthen.
Albertini had his say on the potential purchase of De Ketelaere and what he would bring to the team that is currently missing, with his words transcribed by our colleagues at SempreMilan.it.
“The expense is important, if they decide to invest 35 million it means that they have watched him closely. In Pioli’s 4-2-3-1 he can cover several roles, but he is first of all playmaker,” he said.
“He is a potential champion, because he is a modern player of international caliber, and because at 21 he already has more experience in the Champions League than many current Milan players. Milan chose De Ketelaere, but he too chose the Rossoneri: he knows that the project is perfect for him.
“He is not only talented, he knows how to make himself available to the team’s needs and play in many areas of the pitch. I think he has the potential to join the ranks of those greats like De Bruyne or Kroos: different from each other in characteristics, but all capable of giving their best in a game of positional exchanges.”
There have been many comparisons that have been doing the rounds with some likening De Ketelaere to a young Ricardo Kaka but also to Kevin De Bruyne, his compatriot who is now one of the best midfielders in the world, but the key for Albertini is versatility.
“It’s today’s football, in my day Boban was one of the few to interpret it in this way: he was incredibly modern and had extraordinary qualities, this led him to play as a midfielder, as a winger, as an attacking midfielder, always at the highest levels,” he said.
“Here, De Ketelaere is totally different from Boban, but he is as versatile as he was. The tactical path made by Zvone in Milan can be a model, in this sense De Ketelaere can retrace his footsteps. Kaka? Fascinating comparison. But I don’t see much in common, apart from a clean face!”
There continues to be speculation that Milan are working with Chelsea on a deal for Hakim Ziyech too but as a possible alternative to De Ketelaere rather than a complimentary piece, but Albertini urged the Rossoneri to go for him too.
“I’m just saying one thing. Milan have understood where they want to go, in Italy and in Europe. And to win again you need experienced players: I would try [to sign Ziyech], and how.”
I agree with him. One of Alexis/Messias should be sold and Ziyech should be brought on loan.
Atleast try to do so. Understand we don’t have money but the effort to bring Ziyech should definitely be made. He’s an definite upgrade to our RW dept. atm
Saele. He might have market value and interest. Plus he is absolutely useless in attack. And when we need to protect the lead and play more defensively, we still got Krunic.
Ziyech isn’t much of an upgrade. He’s injury prone, and he couldn’t cut it in the EPL. No one knew who he was when he came to Chelsea, and he’s already 29. Why did it take him so long to make a name for himself? It’s better to invest in an unproven youngster than taking a player on high wages.
no one knew who he was???
no only u dont know who he was
No one knew lmao. He couldn’t cut in Tuchel’s formation. No creative player would cut in that.
Everyone knew him when he came to Chelsea especially after the Ajax 2019 run. Looks like you never watched UCL before 2020 lmao.
He’s injury prone I agree but so is Origi. He’s definitely worth a shot.
You know who else starred in the 2019 UCL? Lucas Moura. What’s he done since? The same as Ziyech – bugger all.
“he couldn’t cut it in the EPL.”
Well… The stats say the opposite.
Saelmaekers to go on loan for Ziyech to come or maintain all of them a good team must have a solid and compatitive bench, it’s along season and anything(injuries/fatigue) can happen we must be prepared for anything, operation defending our title.
I like this mindset, plus the season is going to be a crazy one, I feel squad numbers and quality would be a major factor in who wins titles in all the major leagues.
Ziyech is a supreme player and the reason he didn’t “cut it” in England is because various factors like injury and playing out of position.
Ziyech will feast in Serie A with strikers and finishers like Giroud and Zlatan.
He will give us what we lost in Hakan which was set-piece delivery and accuracy.
We should make a move for him at worst he would be a luxury player who wouldn’t do worse than Diaz nor Hakan.
correct. But wait MeHdi knows more. LOL kek
“He will give us what we lost in Hakan which was set-piece delivery and accuracy.”
LOL. Joke of the week here!!! 😀
During the reign of the so-called deadball specialist, Milan had unbelievably over 100 cornerkicks in a row without scoring. Can you guess who was behind 99% of those corner kicks?
Hakan and his deadball-specialist nickname are both only a joke. A bad one.
“No one knew who he was”. Lmao
I think you’ll find the players being talked about the most following Ajax’s UCL run were De Ligt and De Jong, which is why they were sold that summer. Ziyech left two years later and did what he’s always done – got injured. A player who can’t stay fit and got 4 goals and 3 assists, compared to 5 goals and 2 assists for Messias, isn’t a noticeable upgrade. If Ziyech was 24-25, you’d have an argument, but he isn’t, he’s 29. Let’s not pretend he’s some kind of superstar that everyone is after, he isn’t. We don’t need to become Juve and sign crap other big clubs don’t want.
Milan should try and sign ziyech to partner cdk is a free agent
If we can get both CDK & ziyech better return brahim to real madrid to free more room for squad . Lord saladmaker can stay as backup for ziyech
Milan need to add ziyech to bost our atack both in serie a and champion league we don’t need sanches any more adi is doing well
Absolutely agree. Ziyech is a great player, and if the reports are true that we can buy him for just €10 million, that is a fucking steal and we should get both him AND De Ketelaere.
Yes, I’d rather invest on Ziyech than CB or Sanchez. CB we have returning Kjaer, and Gabbia also in good shape during pre season. In sanchez place we have isma, tonali and pobega. Also Adli could play there too although with slightly different characteristic. Also we have Krunic the most versatile player who can cover all midfield area, eventhough he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. It would be a an interesting season if we could land CDK and Ziyech
Honestly speaking,we need Ziyech too
Most of you place too much emphasis on Ajax’s 2018-2019 UCL run. What you’ve quickly forgotten is that Ziyech was the player most guilty of missing easy chances as Ajax snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Tottenham, something he admitted after the match:
https://www.goal.com/en-my/news/i-blame-myself-ziyech-left-gutted-by-ajaxs-champions-league/1rglc1zcq2kmj1hyyn90fqpqik
“This hits us hard, really hard,” Ziyech told Veronica. “I don’t know how it happened. I just don’t know.
“We knew it would be very difficult if they scored after the 2-2, but we had chances.
“I could have scored, hit the post. At least one of my chances should have gone in.
“Then it would have been over, but then it struck us hard.
“I blame myself for this. We gave our all. The play wasn’t great, but we kept fighting. Now disappointment prevails.”
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All of the players that left that Ajax side have failed to live up to expectations. Ziyech and Van Der Beek flopped in the EPL. Frenkie De Jong was okay, but nothing more than okay, for Barcelona and De Ligt has also been nothing more than okay for Juve.
The biggest criticism levelled at Ziyech even before he joined Chelsea is that he wouldn’t be able to deal with the physicality of the league, and so it proved. We already have a wimp – Diaz. And yes, the standard of the EPL is higher than the standard of the Serie A, but the fact remains none of these Ajax stars have pulled up trees since they left. All of them has been flops to some degree, so why are some of you clamouring for an injury prone 29 year old who would command higher wages than most of the other players in the squad?!?!? He’s not a discernible upgrade on Messias. Messias at least has the excuse of having had only one season in a top league for his mixed performances last season, and despite that, he scored 5 goals and made 2 assists, Ziyech, who joined the Champions of Europe, scored 4 goals and made 3 assists. That’s supposed to be impressive?
In any case, if CDK arrives, Ziyech won’t.
We definitely need both players. CDK isn’t a natural RW.
Please let’s not forget that we have a title to defend and also we have another final to play with our bitter rival inter.so we need to bring in cdk,ziyech and a defender like bremer to strengthen our team.
I will keep saying this, 35m on CDK is damn too much and a mistake, we still don’t have a CB, Gabbiabis not ready, the only preseason Match he did well was against wolfbergers and kjaer is not ready too, we don’t have a quality quantity of a DM/CM, pobega is not ready and bakayoko is no more inspired, we have no good RW, messias and salamaekers are just average.
Spending 35m on one player when we are aware we have very limited funds, when we have have obvious gap in the squad is highly not Smart………I hope this soap opera saga with CDK don’t affect his performance if he finally complete the transfer
Not getting a decent CB instead of using Gabbia is a calculated risk. Not that big one either. Definitely not a priority.
Not getting a proper #10 means we’re doomed if Adli gets injured. Diaz, Krunic or Messias isn’t the answer. If Milan were to get only one player, it should be CDK because
1) good enough #10
2) can play as RW and might be THE RW we need
3) can also play as a striker IF Giroud, Origi AND Rebic happened to be unavailable at the same time for some strange reason.
Not getting more midfielders isn’t that big an issue either as we have replaced Kessie (the only one who left) with Pobega. Also Adli can play in any midfield role too.
Ballo-Toure may or may not be good enough backup LB but Calabria, Kalulu & Florenzi can play there too if catastrophy strikes there. So not a huge issue either.
Kossy is future coach, sporting director, n technical director of Milan since he is more smart, clever and experience than Maldini, Masara n Pioli…
👎👎👎👎👎👏👏👏👏👏👏😂😂😂😂😂