Leeds hope to land Charles De Ketelaere with increased offer - To Elland Back 24/7/22
Tim Whelan
Leeds have increased the bid for Charles De Ketelaere to €40
million, which is likely to be beyond the means of AC Milan, our rivals for the
Belgian’s signature. But the player himself is said to prefer a move to the
Italian Champions.
De Ketelaere usually operates as an attacking central
midfielder, but can play on either wing, if we should ever feel that we haven’t
got enough wingers up front already. And he’s known to make intelligent late
runs into the box, where his height of 6 foot 3 comes in handy, but although he
could become a backup for Patrick Bamford if necessary, he doesn’t often play
as an out and out striker.
The 21-year-old scored 18 times for Club Brugge during last
season, and it’s no surprise that when Club Brugge announced they were willing
to part with him if the price was right, there was plenty of interest from
across the continent. Leicester City were said to have made an enquiry, but AC
Milan seemed to be the front runners, with technical director Paolo Maldini
making several trips to Belgium in pursuit of a deal.
But the San Siro mob are said to be unable to come up with
Brugge’s asking price of €35 million, nor to be able to compete with the
financial clout of Leeds. Even though Milan are the Italian champions and we
just avoided relegation, our income last season exceeded theirs by £20m, such
is the value of the Premier League’s TV contracts and the viewing figures we
pull in thanks to our large fanbase.
But the player himself has expressed a preference for going
to Milan, with the lure of Champions League football no doubt proving to be
more attractive than the higher wages on offer at Elland Road.
Milan are now relying on the will of the player to secure
his signature rather than tyring to compete with our spending power, and as
we’ve seen with Raphinha, a player will often end up where he most wants to go,
rather than the club who is offering the most money. So fingers crossed that we
will land this exciting talent, but nothing is guaranteed just yet.