Charles De Ketelaere is frustrated at Club Brugge for wanting an ‘unrealistic’ fee from Milan, claims an interview with his entourage.
The creative midfielder has made it clear for a couple of months now that he wants a move to San Siro, but the two clubs have still not been able to reach an agreement.
The Rossoneri seem closer than ever after raising their bid to €31m plus €4m in add-ons and performance-related bonuses.
That would match the €35m asking price, but Club Brugge want more of that sum to be guaranteed and less of it split into add-ons.
He is now refusing to train with his Club Brugge teammates and his entourage told Milan Reports that there was only one side to blame for the impasse.
The delay in negotiations is coming from Club Brugge, who want an “unrealistic amount” for the transfer fee.
Meanwhile, interest from Leeds United was also shot down by the player, who has his heart set on the Serie A Champions, maintaining they would be “the most efficient for his potential.”
There are reports today from Sky Sport Italia that De Ketelaere is prepared to do without some outstanding wages from Club Brugge if they will let go and allow him to make the move to Serie A.
The 21-year-old already has eight senior caps for Belgium and is under contract until June 2024, having come up through their youth academy.
Uh oh. I’ve been able to keep my hopes up until now, but when you hear this from a player/his entourage it’s not good news. We’re so close, but still 50/50 as to whether it will go through. Ugh, Ziyech will be such a disappointment as a consolation prize now.
A shame if this doesn’t go through as he seems to have genuine talent but as a Milan fan I would like to see more italian players, why can’t we get Belotti? Yes the past few years he hasn’t been great but how has messias ended up here? All this talk of Ziyech, why not go for Gnonto or pull up the money for Berardi or Raspadori? Hope to see Pobega play also, another one I find odd is all the hate Gabbia gets, why are we linked with another defender when Gabbia is there? When I’ve seen him he isn’t even that bad, a homegrown player who simply needs games, love maldini and how we have improved but a nice mix would be nice, we need a young homegrown CF who can grow and get games as ibra is just too old now sadly. People need to understand italy do still have talent but just need to use them to grow for god sake other leagues do this why can’t we….
I agree with Dennis, not enough Italians and home grown talent within the league. As you said I would go with Belotti and get him on a free as well as Berardi. Give room to the Italians, it’s no surprise Italy didn’t qualify for the World Cup, there are not enough Italian players in Serie A. The Italian players that play for the big sides are very few and those who do play are regulars for the national team. It starts with youth development but it stays there,it should develop and grow into the first team.
Very very true Dennis.
@carlos
Let the other teams worry about home grown players and Italy not making the World Cup. Taxes are too high in Italy for players to move within. Once they fix that along other infrastructure issues then you’ll see a change. Berrardi is near 30 and close to the price of CDK. Hakim is half the price and more experienced
Carlo and Dennis
Yes absolutely agree. To many foreigners. Everytime I visit the sight Milan are linked with another potential talent from everywhere and anywhere BUT Italy!
Maybe you Italian fans support Milan alone since people from all over can’t support or play for milan without hearing rubbish about having Italian players favoured…
Dennis and Carlo I couldn’t agree more. The strategy of filling the clubs with foreign players over the last 10 years just has not worked out at all, the national team has suffered and what have the clubs done in Europe? Nothing at all, so with the national team struggling and the clubs struggling when will the penny drop? It’s almost laughable in a way, more pride and care is needed to fix italian football as other nations would have fixed this long ago, after the 2010 World cup it was obvious to see italy needed reforms but things have just got so much worse, so so many foreign players in Italy are just rubbish, Serie A is not the premier league with all the money to attract the best foreign players so they need to start being brave (logical) and look forward instead of giving ibrahimovic a new contract at the age of almost 41… pathetic tbh
When it comes to young Italian players, it’s not clubs that’s the problem. It’s Italian bureaucracy. Whenever a young Italian player turns 21, Clubs has to pay same the amount of salary as taxes. Clubs won’t want to sign italian players for that insane Tax on Salary. As a result, Players won’t develop. It’s their own problem. They don’t wanna change the system? Fine. Get stuffed in every international level. Clubs have nothing to do with it. In the end, Clubs are businesses that need money to run.
Italian players aren’t cutting it folks. They have failed to qualify for the last two world cups. In winning the Euro they depended on penalty shootout which is a cointoss.
maybe you all forget that Milan battling Juve and others for Tommaso Mancini.. as for the others such as Berardi, Belotti they are indeed a good player but not in line with Milan young player policy.. also Berardi with his 40million pricetag is beyond Milan reach.. as for Gnonto, well I would like to see him at Milan also, but maybe the management think he has different characteristic than what the team needs.
Berardi and Belotti, decent footballers but not top four material; compared to the talent of CDK… Luckily for Milan tiffosi, Maldini & co know it better.
People saging we need italians. The problem is italy dont producer good strikers, its rare. Alt of good deffenders and midfilders. Thats the culture.
This guy seems pretty good and, more importantly, plays in a position we need to improve on. However I agree we don’t give enough chances to our youth players. I’m less concerned about nationality as there’s not a lot you can do about that with the EU – the majority of our youth players are of course Italian. People who talk about money and taxes are missing the fact that youth team players are free. So there can be no financial reason. There can also be no technical reason. Unless there’s something in the water in Italy, Italy should be able to produce the same quality players as everyone else. More so given football is our national sport and we have a large population. The players playing in Milan‘s youth team are in the top 0.0000000001% of players on the planet for their level. So something is going wrong if we consistently are unable to harness that potential. Milan’s youth team have produced at least 3 or 4 players who were some of the top players for their generation: Cutrone and Ganz scored record numbers of goals, Cristante and Locatelli were stars of their levels. We failed to develop these players because we crowded them out often with pretty average signings.