The reflections continue after a difficult season for Charles De Ketelaere with a sale this summer not ruled out, according to a report.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes that Milan are not planning any €40-50m signings despite the big-money sale of Sandro Tonali to Newcastle United, but further sales could potentially change that.
De Ketelaere could hold the key in this sense, having disappointed with zero goals and one assist in his debut season with the Rossoneri after the €35m paid out to Club Brugge last summer.
Milan’s policy is to invest in young talent and help develop them before potentially selling them on for a huge price in the future, just as happened with Tonali, but thus far the Belgian’s value has probably gone down if anything.
Milan will listen to offers for De Ketelaere, especially if they are around the €28-30m needed to avoid a loss on the accounts. Atalanta are one club that are interested, wanting a loan with option to buy at the moment.
De Ketelaere’s crisis continued into the Under 21 European Championship with Belgium. Head coach Mathijssen fielded him three games out of three and never brought him off, even entrusting him with the captain’s armband against the Netherlands.
CDK started on the right, played as a second striker and as an attacking midfielder but was unable to unlock any games. He hasn’t scored a goal since April 2022 and while there continues to be support from team-mates, the pressure seems to have gotten to him.
De Ketelaere should report for preseason a bit after the rest of the squad on 10 July because of his commitments with the U21 side, unless he decides to cut his holidays short or there are market-related developments.
🙏
Or we could play him in his preferred position on the RW for a year, regularly and see how that pans out?
That’s a very good suggestion.
As one of the reason he has’nt delivered much so far is due to irregular playing time.
Good idea
RW CF CAM when you play him at the position that isn’t known for and he didn’t play much on how you expect results? 🤔
What is his ideal position? – the one that he won’t look like a scared little girl on the pitch?
Problem is he looks like that even on the bench…
True Dat. To be fair, Pioli played Diaz more than CDK. Even when Leao and Tonali struggled to settle in, Pioli played them more often.
I say the kid deserves another year. Then an offload if he still fires blanks. (You know he will explode at Atalanta, too)
Do they really think Atalanta would spend €28 million on CDK?? He could possibly be bought by some English mid-ladder club that has big money and a coach with a vision that something could be pulled out of the Belgian!
That kid is talented. I have feeling Milan will regret not giving him chance like Chelsea did with De Bruyne.
That belgian u21 coach trying hard fielding him in RW,AMF ,SS . But the result belgium u21 knocked from stage group . Atalanta only want loan with option to buy. Better keep him for one season or if want to atalanta set buy option 30m euro ++
$35m is NOT a buy that’s intended to generate a profit someday… that’s the price of someone who you think is going to perform NOW. CDK is simply not that player and his performance for u21 Belgium confirms this. He is a second or third tier league player, or a starter in Belgium Eredivisi.
At first I wanted him to stay but now that Milan has become a feeder club, please sell him along with Leao, Maignan and Theo 🤌
Those players deserve to be in teams with winning mentality NOT business (feeder) club like this american sh.t
Milan’s goal is to buy young talent, develop them and sell them for a huge profit as the case of Tonalli!
JESUS F***ING CHRIST! They’re turning us into Atalanta, or Sassuolo…
How could’ve we end up this badly?!
#CardinaleOut
#RedBirdOut
That’s a very good suggestion.
As one of the reason he has’nt delivered much so far is due to irregular playing time.
Good idea