Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara were showered with a flood of media praise for the right moves they have made in the football market in recent years. The reason was the incoming transfers such as Rafael Leao, Theo Hernandez, Fikayo Tomori, Ismael Benaccer, Pierre Kalulu, and Malick Tchiaw. But Milan’s reinforcement this year, the most expensive in the last few years – Charles De Ketelaere – is still far from justifying the enormous millions invested in his arrival from Club Brugge.He was paid a fixed 32,000,000 euros, and he still hasn’t scored for the Rossoneri, even though the 25th round of Serie A was played last night. In fact, he was often not a starter. Only one assist in all competitions in 1,200 minutes of football is too little for an attacker, even if he came without compensation, let alone for a huge amount of money.The lack of self-confidence in the Belgian is evident, it showed the most with the missed header against Tottenham, the goal chance against Monza, the lack of initiative and slow reactions when the ball is in his possession. It is not the image of that super-talent who was famous wearing the Bruges jersey.All hail the faded championsHowever, the Belgian is not the only one who needed months and months to break the ice in Serie A. The undisputed record holder in recent history is Andre Silva. You remember the Portuguese that cost AC Milan 38,000,000 euros from Porto in 2017. He may have netted in the Bundesliga in recent seasons, but he was awful at the Boot.Cristiano Ronaldo convinced the world public that Silva is his heir, the Rossoneri fell for the story that was created in the agreement between Cristiano and super agent Jorge Mendes in order to increase Silva’s price. The Portuguese failed to score in Serie A until the 28th round – he sat on the bench for ten matches, was a starter on six occasions and scored only in mid-March against Genoa.At the start of the season, he was a double scorer in the Europa League qualifiers, against a small club from North Macedonia. An unworthy performance for a player whose job description is to score goals, and then everything else.##NAJAVA_MECA_7068313##Ante Rebić, who broke the ice only in the 20th round, needed quite a bit for his debut in Serie A. Gianluca Lapadula needed 12th rounds, Divock Origi one less, but even though it was a belter against Monza, for now that is the only one he scored for the Kenyan in Milan jersey. He is already considered a flop and one of the worst summer transfers in the Apennines, even though he arrived for free.During the 2017/18 campaign Hakan Calhanoglu introduced himself to Italy in the 10th round with a goal against Chievo, and Rafael Leao broke the deadlock in the 6th round, in the autumn of 2019. Meanwhile, Leao has blossomed into one of Europe’s most lethal wingers and Serie A MVP.Silva’s example, and the Portuguese stayed in Milan for only one year, suggests that De Ketelaere could be leaving San Siro much sooner than expected, maybe sent on a loan from the summer, and later sold to reduce the financial damage, but the experience with Leao shows that it may be a justified risk put up with the Belgian. However, instinct has rarely deceived Paolo Maldini and his associates so far.
