Charles De Ketelaere made yet another substitute appearance last night against Sampdoria and failed to do much in the 20 minutes that he got.
As Calciomercato.com report, De Ketelaere once again appeared timid on the field. Admittedly the game was already won which reduced the need to take risks, but at the same time it felt like a chance to demonstrate his qualities in a match where the pressure of the result had already been taken off.
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Stefano Pioli himself admitted at the end of the game that he is unsure what the future might hold for De Ketelaere.
“I don’t know what the future will be, but certain things are forgotten too quickly. I am referring to the difficulties of those who have arrived here over the year,” he said.
“I continue to think that we have quality, the goal is to improve further. De Ketelaere? I don’t know, we will evaluate everything at the end of the season.”
A serious and reasoned evaluation will undoubtedly have to be made at the end of the season, one that has yielded zero goals and one assist so far after a €35m investment made a year ago.
The situation we are facing is not the one envisaged by Maldini and Massara last summer, but they remain firmly convinced that the former Club Brugge man will eventually begin to demonstrate his talent.
Pioli’s statements seem to offer a different scenario though, one that sees De Ketelaere leave in the summer, perhaps on loan. Discussions will be had with his entourage and a precise program for his future will be needed.
Some early enquiries have arrived but a lot will depend on the will of the player and his desire to be a protagonist, at Milan or elsewhere.
It seems absurd that we would be planning next season around CDK.
I get the feeling that Maldini is doubling down on CDK, possibly in the hope that even delaying confirmation of the failure helps because if we have a good season, particularly having found a sustainable alternative, who will really care that CDK didn’t work out?
Brahim is another precedent that doesn’t support CDK coming good any time soon.
I would he happy to sell even to only recover 75% of what we paid and knowing that he will come good in year 3 or 4.
He is one player. There are plenty of fish in the sea. We need an AM who can orchestrate attacks next season and the season after. We simply do not have time to wait for CDK.
@Bruno. CDK needs time but it was the wrong strategy by Maldini to bet on player development over time when the team needed a player who could add immediate impact.
He will no doubt stay at Milan but now the club will be forced to bring in another AM since both CDK and Adli first season were failures.
Adli will be the player who goes on loan next season.
I suspect you’re right on all fronts.
It’s funny to me how fans can judge CDK after one season but did not do so over Tonali lol. Why? Is it because Tonali is Italian? Based on Tonali’s first season we should have sold him straight away. But we didn’t. Why is that?? Perhaps because he was/still is YOUNG and developing??? LOL. Yet the same patience we showed to Tonali those same fans will not show to CDK. Hmmmm….Who knows if CDK is a bust just yet. IMO (just like any young 20 yr old player) needs another season if not 2 before we can make that determination. I get why fans are so anxious. Because of Ownership we have a LIMITED transfer budget and fans are bitter we spent the most of it on CDK and he disappointed. Well that isn’t all on him. Some yes but not all. If Diaz was the consistent veteran we all thought he would be CDK could have been brought along slowly instead of being thrown into the fire. But that didn’t happen. And if Ownership gave us a reasonable amount of money in January to buy a player like, I don’t know Aouar (8m) – we could have solved the problem and picked up a player (24) for next to nothing while allowing CDK the space and time he needs to grow and acclimate to a new country culture and football. I also pleaded for ownership to get the CDK deal done earlier in the summer so he could have more time in training camp – but we had to nickle and dime Brugge because M&M had to beg ownership for the last few million to get the deal done. Who knows if a full training camp would have helped CDK more. Point is those fans who love Redbird must also love their YOUTH POLICY – and that means with ALL youth you must give then the TIME to develop (and that doesn’t mean one season). And that goes for Adli, CDK, Aster, etc…just as it did with Leao, Theo and Tonali. Hell Leao and Theo were not good their first season – can you imagine if we just gave up on both of them because fans are impatient – where the heck would we be now?? Wake up lads. CDK isn’t the sole problem here. Look a bit deeper at Ownership.
Well the difference between Tonali and CDK is that Tonali’s first season was poor. CDK’s has been all time worst.
Tonali was good defensively next to Kessie but bad with his passing, CDK has been awful at everything.
Tonali came from a team that played in serie B, came up to serie A, was the worst team in the league and got relegated back.
CDK came from the best team in Belgium and with UCL experience under his belt.
And if you remember Milan did send Tonali back to Brescia after his 1st season, since he was on loan with option to buy. And then negotiated a new permanent transfer that was 10 mil lower than the original one.
People need to stop looking for players to compare how awful CDK has been. There are no comparisons.
And what does ownership have to do with CDK being trash on the field? Are they not paying his salary?
Plus maybe you and the rest of us want Milan to sign Aouar, but it seems that Maldini and management don’t, since they allowed him to go to Roma on a free transfer and a 2 mil salary.
Can’t tell me that Aouar who fits the project since he is only 24 and on a low salary isn’t at Milan because of ownership.
Thank you for helping me to prove the point.
Tonali’s first relevant season was not with Milan.
It was his first season with Brescia playing Serie A during which he essentially ran the midfield, proving his quality in the league. He played something close to a full year.
So when we got to the end of Tonali’s first season with Milan, his second season of Serie A, there was the fall back of his having played at a higher standard at such a young age for Brescia in the same league the season before and in the same position.
It was not just blind faith to get to the end of 20/21 and to assess Tonali as just struggling to adapt to the new system/style. There was clear evidence he could be better, playing in a weak team in the same league.
With CDK it is relying on feats as a false 9 in Belgium to hope that he will come good as an AM in the Serie A.
It’s almost as though history isn’t littered with players who didn’t work out. That quality operators do not get it wrong.
Like I said, even if CDK makes it 2 or 3 seasons frok now I’m not waiting because we don’t have the time to wait to work out whether he is even good.
If we don’t have the time to wait then we should have a new policy – but we don’t. It sucks but this is what Ownership wants. I don’t agree with it either. Younger players with potential who may or may not develop. This is the risk they are willing to take to save money and keep in line with their budget and wage cap.
I appreciate that.
The issue is that there is a gaping hole at AM with no sustainable solution for another 1 or 2 seasons (assuming CDK comes good). It is arguably the biggest single reason we have struggled in the league. A quality AM spreads the focus of an opponent and gives us 3 avenues to goals.
I look at it as a 10m experiment that went wrong (assuming sale for about 75% of transfer fee paid). It is going to cost a whole lot more than 10m to wait for CDK to come good in a role he has no record of success in. Remember we only qualify for UCL now because Juve’s points have been taken (again).
I’m biased. I’m a big believe in the player Zaniolo can be. Aggressive, physical, creative and quick enough (certainly as quick as CDK). Possibly even for a loan with an obligation to buy, enabling us to spread the cost and buy other played.
The whole team gets transformed with an aggressive physical presence at AM.
Now is not the time to double down. If we had an AM we could rely on I’d be more inclined to wait.
I judge CDK because he is THAT BAD. He isn’t even near the level of Serie A. It would be impossible for the player we are seeing to improve as much as is needed. He is just not a good player.
Comparing atacker with CMF or DMF not a wise choice. CDK are atacker player ,his job are scoring goal while Tonali help with defense & balancing the mid ( his job not scoring goal ) . Castilejo ,Suso,carlos bacca still can score goal in their first season with AC Milan . Looking back at dark era AC Milan even cetci,destro,jeremy menez can score goal in their 1st season with AC Milan . Im afraid CDK will follow paqueta path because he is flamboyan & stylish in play
The issue with selling on the back of last season is that there’s no way not to make a significant loss on him which would look really bad on the books. I think a loan to a top 5-6 French club would be ideal, if it was possible to arrange.
To make the whole CDK transfer even worse, The 2 teams that Milan was competing with over the summer to sign CDK, Leeds and Leicester are going to get relegated.
It seems to me pioli took a swing back at Maldini with these words after Maldini took a swing at Pioli a couple of days ago saying that Inter were a lot better than us in the last 4,5games and we don’t have a certain idea how to change that.It seems the papers were wright after all saying that the locker room and the entire club is broken into small groups of interests.It seems we’ll have at least another year without a trophy.
What did you buy to think trophy messias 4ml, malik thiaw 4ml, florenzi 3ml, de katelare is flop, you can’t judge pioli for cheap and mediocre team
Was CDK Playing as an AM in his old club?
We seem to forget he was used more we a CF and he plays majorly from RW, judging him as an AM where he didn’t actually play is management shifting blames from themselves to CDK. How was Leao when he was used as a CF? Crap. My point is we may not have gotten a AM but if Pioli had tried him somewhere else maybe we’d have gotten a CF or RW but we’d may never know
Keep CdK. Simple as that.
AC needs investment and italians.
Striker – Retegui + Firmino (can play AM)
AM – Baldanzi
RW – Berardi , Zaniolo (Zaniolo can play AM pretty good)
CM – Tielemans should be free agent
CDM – Frattesi or Ndidi
LB – Parisi (he is a RB but should be able to play as LB)
Milan made a lot of money from the UCL. Europa league will also give some revenue.
With the departure of Tatarusanu, Mirante, Messias, Vranckx, Origi, Brahim, Adli, Ballo Toure..there should be additional revenue from their salaries or by simply selling them.
Frattesi isn’t cdm Frattasi is cm or cam if milan go for frattesi I will celebrate that day
“AC needs investment and italians.”
Then sell CdK while he still has great value and get Zaniolo.
Selling a gem like CdK after just one season would be as stupid as selling Tonali or Leao after their first bad season..simply stupid
So many people were against me when I was telling them cdk is not what we want last summer bur everyone accepted now even if we give another 3 years cdk won’t change because he isn’t milan level
Yeah I bet you were also one criticizing Tonali after his average first season, Kessié after his bad 2 seasons , Leao who needed 2 seasons to get good , Theo who’s defending was terrible at his 1st season, Donnarumma who made a lot of mistakes during his first 2 seasons etc 🙂
Oh look there is CdK who has a bad first season. Let’s blame him and trash talk. Because the other players are OK and deserved 2 SEASONS to get good but NO , CdK don’t deserves even 1 season…
Simply stupid fans who have no clue about football.
I am glad that we have Maldini and Pioli who habe patience with these young talents.
Such ,,fans” should probably support Man City or PSG…
I never criticize leao, Theo, donaruma, Kassie, all of those players you mentioned were my favorite players, can you show me one comment were i was criticizing thse players
I am just writing that it’s not fair from you or other fans to criticise CdK after only 1 season…
There were players like Leao or Kessié who had not only 1 but 2 shi.ty seasons and shined on their 3rd..
And you + some other are already writing CdK off…
Not fair and not what real fans should do
Agreed. Grealish was crap for man city last year and he is 100mil. Players need time to gel up with new team mates and understand the flow, especially one who plays a bit deeper.
To me,I believe the best scenario will be this; CDK had been given enough chances already and turned out to a massive failure this season.My suggestions will be that AC Milan Technical Team should loan out CDK on a dry one to a newly promoted Serie A team and return Diaz to Madrid and rather negotiate for Arsensio for the AM to compete with Adli cause it not too good an idea to send both CDK and Adli on loan as this is tantamount to waste of resources. The Technical Team should bring in Edon Zegrova from Lille to compete with Salamakers with Messias out during the summer sales and Loftus Cheek or Seko Fofana be added to the midfield and with Giroud, Lazetic and Retegui,come the the end of next season we will lifting another Serie A title believe me. So we don’t need much to compete.
For me, milan just need better coach than pioli who stucks with one formation even the team has injury problem
Milan just hate to pay the bonus. That’s why every player is so bad in his first season. CDK started the season in a great way, scoring 2 goals in his first games that were unfortunately both ruled out by VAR because of offside by other players. He also assisted Tonali the winner against Atalanta but Sandro missed it by a mile. It’s not that CDK doesn’t have the qualities, but you could see him get less confidence game after game. We played great against Inter with CDK on the field and even though he failed to mark his man on their counter attack, he still to put in a good performance in his first derby even though he was dropped in the team very late in the team without a lot of preparation. The kid has the qualities, but somehow at Milan every player’s first year is a bust. We just don’t like to pay the bonus of the transfer fee. That must be it…
sayings do not have the nature of motivating the player.
Pioli don’t forget to saying something about Diaz also, needs a complete midfielder, just loan CDK to Italian club.
I’m sorry but you can’t compare CDK’s first season to Tonali or Leao etc. They both had decent games and flashes of brilliance. They at least showed some promise and that they understand what to do with a football. CDK on the other hand looks like he started playing 6 months ago. He couldn’t even do sh*t against Sampdoria – the worst team in the league – ffs. Cash in on him while we can at least get SOMETHING back. I’m so done with this guy and people defending garbage. Sheesh.
I normally say to give players time but that’s only if the players show potential. CDK just isn’t good enough for Serie A. He would have to improve an amount that no player can improve at. He simply isn’t good enough. Even on his best days he will never belong.
I appreciate Pioli’s very clear swipe at Maldini. Pioli is a good coach and wants Cardinale to know he can win trophies with the right front office.
From that article , i can say pioli dont need CDK or atleast he see CDK as a burden ( Management forcing him to play CDK not other player like adili for sub) . CDK best position are Second striker & False nine, Pioli dont need player for that position, the big question for Maldini : did he buy CDK without coach agreement or atleast discuss with coach? If maldini do transfer like this to conte , trust me conte will badmouthing him in confrence press. Lucky for Maldini that pioli calm & obedient coach not angry type coach like conte or nagelssmann. It is Maldini job to find best solution for CDK and club next summer since pioli already said dont need CDK
The past is the past, ok, but I still fail to understand our strategy here. We needed an up-to-speed number 10, somebody who could have brought in value immediately as it was not like we had a lot of choices in the squad to play in that position. And guess what ? We invested in a player who could (in the best case scenario) be up-to-speed in 2-3 years while Dybala was available for … nothing (ok with a higher salary)