Sergino Dest has become somewhat of a mystery given that he has even been excluded from recent squads entirely despite not having any reported injury.
Calciomercato.com recall how the American full-back arrived from Barcelona on a loan with option to buy deal towards the end of the 2022 summer window after Alessandro Florenzi suffered an injury that kept him out for six months.
Dest has made 14 appearances for a total of 632 minutes this season and he will return to Barcelona at the end of the season because the Milan management have no intention of triggering the €20m option to buy.
There are several reasons behind the choice. Dest – protagonist of a good World Cup in Qatar with the United States – was unable to get into the mechanics of head coach Stefano Pioli and thus dropped down the pecking order at right-back.
He has also had too many physical problems, from muscle fatigue to some calf discomfort. Moreover, the player’s salary (all covered by Milan) and the high option to buy means not even an attempt will be made.
With all due respect, the Coach needs to stop discarding players…
Milan failed a lot of with transfers, because buying the cheap unexperienced players. Unfortunately De Ketelaere is expensive, bit still young, so chances are 50 50 he will find way in couple of years.
Hopefully Milan will save some money? To generate that in near future… We will see..
I try to borrow from John Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance to assess players as much as possible.
In very basic summary, put all pre-conceptions aside and focus on what it is I am actually seeing. Assess characteristics on the pitch against objective standards.
As I do it for Dest I see a small wing back with average speed (an immediate warning sign), no physical presence, average technical ability and who is prone to very bad decisions during games…who happens to have ended up on Barcelona’s list for some reason.
Dest has been a very poorly performed player and has no immediately obvious attributes that suggests he could he developed into anything more than average.
Just because Pioli doesn’t have faith in Dest doesn’t mean that lack of faith is unwarranted. Not all of the summer mercato signings are the same.
Aster, on the other hand, is like raw colt. He charges around and things happen. There is something there that can be harnessed, while will likely happend as a result of the increased focus following castration.
Last sentence was supposed to read
“which will likely happen as a result of increased focus following castration.”