Leeds United want to sign Charles De Ketelaere again, player open to leaving AC Milan
Leeds United want to try and sign Charles De Ketelaere again this summer and the player is open to leaving AC Milan, according to Team Talk (9 April).
The Whites wanted to sign the Belgium international last summer and offered more to Club Brugge than Milan did, but the player only wanted to move to the San Siro and turned down a move to Elland Road.
But with limited game time in Italy this season the player is now open to leaving the club for more regular football elsewhere, and Leeds are set to go back in for the forward but face competition from newly promoted Burnley.
The report claims that Vincent Kompany is keen to link up with his fellow countryman and the player finds the option appealing, however if Leeds are still in the Premier League they would surely be a more attractive option.
De Ketelaere wants to play more regularly to get in the Belgium squad for Euro 2024 next summer, and Leeds would surely provide a great platform for him to do so.
Hazard
While there is no doubting that De Ketelaere is a fantastic young footballer with great qualities, there should be question marks surrounding the fact that he may not be what Leeds need.
Elland Road is desperate for a reliable source of goals to come in so that we no longer need to rely on Patrick Bamford or the ageing Rodrigo, and the positions behind that striker are firmly stocked up with great young talent.
There should also be some caution about the fact that he didn’t want to come here a year ago because he thought he was too good for us, and we’d essentially just be a fall-back option.
He obviously wasn’t as good as he or Milan thought he was or he’d be playing far more often, so maybe he isn’t the player that our scouts thought he was either.
We can’t blow money on players this summer if we stay in the Premier League.
There has to be a plan in place that gets executed to build a squad capable of not battling with the drop every year. If he fits into that, then it could be shrewd. If he doesn’t, then he should be ignored.
In other Leeds news, Roy Keane let rip live on Sky Sports after what he saw in the 5-1 defeat to Crystal Palace.