Charles De Ketelaere has decided to accept the loan offer of Atalanta, according to a report. The Belgian will thus leave AC Milan, albeit initially on a temporary basis, after just one year at the club.
The 22-year-old struggled in his first season with the Rossoneri, bagging just one assist in 40 appearances. Milan had been open to a sale ever since the start of the summer but eventually had to consider a loan offer, given the lack of outright ones.
As reported by Daniele Longo, De Ketelaere has now said yes to the offer of Atalanta, who will pay €3m to Milan for the loan. They will also cover the player’s entire salary this season (€2.9m gross), while there will also be a buy-out set at €23m. The final details will be sorted today, such as scheduling the medical tests for the coming days.
Milan will also be entitled to 10% of a future resale, which is an important clause for the Rossoneri. We discussed the figures of the deal and explained exactly what they mean for Milan in our latest Substack bonus (try seven days completely for free).
Somehow, I feel this is going to come back to bite them in the ass.
40 games, one assist. Yeah no.
Don’t be so sure to right him off. The attributes that made the club splash out 35m on him are still there , what’s preventing his breakthrough is purely psychological and he can still come good . Debruyne & Salah two recent monsters of the game also didn’t prove themselves early at Chelsea at went on to become legends at other clubs.
CDK never looked comfortable in any position he played with us but just don’t right him off yet he is very young.
Lol at comparing scared boy Charlie with debruyne and Salah
Salah was bought by Chelsea and loaned out to Fiorentina & Roma for 2 seasons eventually bought by Roma and sold to Liverpool were he finally exploded.
De bruyne( similar to CDK as starting out as a pure AM) was loaned to 2 German clubs and eventually sold to Man City where he was moved to midfield and also finally showed his potential.
We are talking about players with promise who didn’t make it early on and cast off as flops and years later became world class in other clubs.
So LOL to your comment kaka
Playing at wrong position didn’t help. It was a failed gamble trying to convert SS (who like to drift to both flanks but rarely play centrally) into AM.
What is is preferred position? Seeing as he sucks in every one we’ve played him in.
I remember the KDB from Chelsea man, this will bite us in the ass!
And do you think kdb and salah would be the players they are now if they stayed at chelsea?
You somehow miss the obvious fact that they only become who they are now after they left chelsea.
Sometimes player is a flop in one club and becomes a star in another club.
That’s just how it is
The only thing that’s going to bite us in the ass is if(when) Atalanta send him back to us at the end of his loan.
Goodbye
Finally. Good luck at Atalanta, hopefully you can get your form back and fulfill your potential.
This is the best for all parties,
For CDK, he will hopefully get game time, under one of the best coach to develop young player
For Atalanta, they will get a talented AM for cheap, and if they exercise buyout, can sold him for twice-thrice the value
For us, we free from his wages and get some additional fund (3m), and potentially 23m more next season and 10% of his future sale, which is nice if he fulfill his potential.
For those that want him to stay, face the reality, he won’t develop under us because he won’t get game time. If he to fulfill his potential, it will be because he moved to Atalanta and he unlikely reach his full potential here.
Good. Now we can move onto transfer targets.
Yes kamada-kun?
Oops he’s in lazio now
It’s Kamada-San – get it right buddy if your going to attempt to be funny. “San” in Japanese means Mr or Mrs. “kan” means period of time – which makes no sense for what you wrote.
We still have already 6 midfielders. RLC, Reijnder, Krunic, Pobega, Musah, and Pulisic who can play as AMC. Don’t forget Bennacer.
Good deal for 1 year.
Still that doesn’t mean they will buy him for final 23 million.
But when you look at the picture, in first year we lost 10 million on De Keteleare, in this year we will lose difference of probably 4 million. So 14 million on player who didn’t show anything unfortunately.
That’s why you need to buy smart which is not easy.
Leao and Tonali’s first seasons weren’t that impressive either. They got more playing time than CDK.
CDK is a striker or SS which we haven’t been using him for. Pioli has tried to make him more flexible but his talent and potential he has shown is in other positions.
So why did we pay that much money and never used him in his best position?
He is still young and if Gasperini can get into his mind and make him a more confident presence then there might be something big there.
However, Atalanta has a win-win situation with this deal. Milan can maybe get the money back which is fine.
Pioli now has a lot of pressure of making us play a better passing game than we have and get results. Not easy with so many new players but this time he doesn’t have that many injuries. At least not so far.
People saying, he had one assist in whole season. Chuk, Okafor and Reijnders had good statistics in their clubs past season or two. CdK had wild statistics in his previous club as well. What I want to say, same can happen to any of our new signings (hopefully not).
Can only wish the boy the best of luck, unless when you’re playing against us 😉. Show your potential and when Pioli got sacked maybe the new coach would know how to utilize u in the fiture. Ciao Charles
AM AM AM everywhere, no DM. No actual DM. No someone who lies deep and absorbs the shock, sweeps and distribute the ball to mezzala’s / wingers. Absolutely nobody like that at Milan right now.
This is what I’m afraid of. All the interviews highlighted that Pioli would love to play more attractive attacking football. Maybe he forgot that we won the Scudetto because we’re the least conceded side, not the most goal scored.
Best of luck for him.
Ngl, i was hyped by his signing last season, which was so long and took almost entire transfer window.
But it is what it is.
Sadly now he has no more place in Milan with pioli switching formation to 4 3 3.
Even if he was willing to stay and fight for his place, he would never get that many chances here.
He’s still young, i hope he can rediscover his form at atalanta.
I actually think this is the best decisions for both club and player.
Atalanta will get the player they want that fit their tactics and formation.
De Ketelaere will get more playing time so he can express himself in a team that actually will use him in his best position.
And Milan will have a space relieved for both economic and tactical reason.
And I don’t think his situation are 100% identical to Leao or Tonali’s case. They do have some similarities, but also big difference.
Leao don’t have that many competition for LW, so he would always get playing time despite playing good or bad. Same goes for Tonali. In 4-2-3-1 he only had to compete against Bakayoko which he won obviously, thus made him got a lot of playing time.
That is not the case for CDK.
He was supposed to take that AM role from Brahim, but after a series of unfortunate events, Brahim eventually retain his place, relegated CDK to bench.
2023-2024 Pioli considering a 4-3-3 to tweaked a 4-2-3-1 he already had, thus it made CDK has no best position anymore.
And even if he’ll be given playing time.. there’s a fierce competition for that.
Pioli never used him as CF. Pulisic, Okafor can play AM/SS. Chuck has practically sealed RW with Romero in behind. Midfield now has Reijnder, RLC, Musah, Krunic, Pobega, Adli (for now) that all suited better than CDK.
So yeah.. he must leave to find playing time and to regain that confidence.
Will it come to haunt and bite us in the future?
I don’t think so.
But even if it is, it IS okay. Not all players have to explode in Milan. Some do, after they move from Milan to others.
But so far, I’m excited for the next Leao, Tonali, and Kalulu kind of explode in Thiaw, Reijnder and Musah..
So.. Best of luck for CDK on his new adventure in Atalanta..
Make me remember about Henry and Vieira too, both not very success in juve and milan
It’s hilarious to read comments from some ppl on this chat that CDK is trash that he is useless and will never amount to anything LOL. He’s 22. Played one season for a big club in a different country, language, culture, position, tactics – but none of that matters apparently. Nor does it matter that Moncada scouted him and chose him as our marquee signing. Ok it didn’t work out last season. But we should all Give the kid a chance. Glad he’s going to Atalanta where he will be given time to fulfill his potential – you know like we gave with Leao Theo and Tonali to name a few. I also wonder what any of you accomplish at 22 yrs of age. My guess is not much of anything at all – because such is life. It takes time – some adapt more quickly than others. Perhaps he will become a star and perhaps he will be a bust. Only time will tell – but if we judged everyone’s career/life after one year at the ripe old age of 22 we would all be out of jobs. Remember that kids.
This is a good move. Gasperini develops young talent very well and if all goes according to plan, we stand to make a small gain on this deal if bonuses are triggered.
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for this kid at Milan, I was really rooting for him, but it seems like he came with a lot of pressure on his shoulders and just couldn’t cope with it. Happens.
Hopefully he rediscovers himself at Atalanta.