Leeds United: Phil Hay would be surprised to see De Ketelaere move to Italy

Phil Hay has admitted that he’d be surprised to see Leeds United target Charles De Ketelaere make the move to Serie A.

Leeds have certainly not been shy in their transfer market moves this summer having already brought in six new players to help Jesse Marsch put his own stamp on a squad that came very close to dropping out of the Premier League last season.

However, none of their deals would likely be seen as ambitious as a potential move for Belgium international De Ketelaere, who also has interest from Serie A champions AC Milan, which is making the deal far more complicated to complete.

However, Hay has admitted while speaking on The Phil Hay Show that he’d be surprised if Milan could afford De Ketelaere’s transfer fee.

He said (27:09): “So I think the way they’re looking at it at the moment is that if Raphinha goes, and that still feels quite likely, then that funds whatever else it has to be – and it’s not to say that it will be De Ketelaere, because it does seem that his preferred move is to AC Milan.

“I’m still convinced that Milan aren’t necessarily going to go high enough in the bidding to get him out of Club Brugge. We’ll see but it’s all a bit weird, I said on the podcast last week, it’s weird at Milan, won Serie A and you kind of think of them as having loads and loads of clout, but it’s not actually in reality too much like that.”

TIF Thoughts on interest and possibility of signing De Ketelaere…

It has been reported that De Ketelaere has a price tag of around £30 million, which would see him become Leeds’ all-time record signing, taking over from Brenden Aaronson and thus, would see them smash their transfer record twice in the same window, showing how much support Marsch has at Elland Road.

It will be difficult for Leeds to one, pip AC Milan to the signing of a young European talent given the pedigree of the Italian outfit and they can also offer him Champions League football, but also, because Leeds have already splashed well over £60 million this summer so won’t be able to necessarily target De Ketelaere, without someone such as Raphinha departing first.