The hope among the AC Milan staff was that Charles De Ketelaere would thrive at the World Cup in Qatar and come back a different player, but unfortunately that has not happened.
As Tuttosport (via MilanNews) reports this morning, the inclusion of De Ketelaere in the dynamics of Milan was more complicated than expected. After an encouraging start in August and September in which the Belgian showed flashes of great quality and assisted Rafael Leao against Bologna, the 21-year-old seems to have gotten a little lost along the way.
Of course he had to settle at a new club in a new city in a new country after an exhausting negotiation that saw him join the Rossoneri for a total of €35m, but De Ketelaere seems to be searching for himself.
The good news is that the management have absolutely no intention of letting go after a few months of subdued offerings, and instead Stefano Pioli and his staff have great faith in the player’s potential. Maldini, after Fiorentina, said: “We gave Charles a five-year contract, not a five-month one.”
Pioli is also not a man who gives up, and the head coach feels he has the ability and means to overturn De Ketelaere’s difficult start too, as his time at the club has shown to far with cases like Rafael Leao and Sandro Tonali.
Tonali had a first season below expectations with the Rossoneri, only to then rise dramatically in the last season, while Leao finally managed to explode after a long time of aiming to be consistent. De Ketelaere could do the same.
