A journalist has clarified the doubts regarding whether AC Milan could sign both Charles De Ketelaere and Hakim Ziyech this summer.
Speaking on Radio Rossonera, Daniele Longo of Calciomercato.com started by giving an update on the De Ketelaere situation, remarking that Milan thought they could close the deal more quickly and more easily, otherwise the directors would not have gone directly to Belgium a few days ago.
While this journey was not seen as the absolute decisive meeting even beforehand, it was more for the purpose of wanting to deal in person and to clarify some points. Longo adds that Milan are not willing to raise their offer of €30m plus €1m in bonuses while Club Brugge have received a €40m bid from Leeds United.
The Belgian club ‘know that the player wants Milan’ and the Rossoneri believe that Brugge will finally surrender to the will of the 21-year-old. Why can’t Milan raise their offer by the extra €2-4m needed? It is not they they cannot, but rather they ‘do not want to, in order to have a little more money to invest in other players’.
Meanwhile, Longo stated that Milan held new talks with Chelsea on Friday to ‘let them know that there is still interest’ in Hakim Ziyech. He and De Ketelaere do not overlap from a technical point of view, but Milan were hoping to sign the Belgian for €25m and Ziyech for €5m via a loan formula, but ‘it could not be done and now the Moroccan seems to be the second choice compared to the Belgian’.
