The Belgian cost 35, the Argentine 31. Milan and Inter must recover them to avoid the economic flop, as well as the technical one
We thought they were tops, but they are flops, at least for the moment. Charles De Ketelaere and Joaquin Correa players symbol of the decline of Milan and Inter. They are of different ages, De Ketelaere is seven years younger and this earns him a good “patience and understanding”, but both share a present of irrelevant forwards, almost ballast if we are at the latest performances. A basic vagueness unites them, both of them wander around the field without conviction, as if they were strangers. Personal contracts excluded, they cost over 60 million, 35 for De Ketelaere, 32 plus 3 for fairly easy bonuses, and 31 for Correa. Wasted money, always with today’s hindsight. It cannot be ruled out that tomorrow things will change.
Out of context
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“Impressed”, impressed. This is how Pep Guardiola answered a question about Charles De Ketelaere in the autumn of 2021, after a Bruges-City (1-5) in the Champions League. It must be for this reason that people say that De Ketalaere is a potential new De Bruyne, as a youngster reviled at Chelsea and then ascended to the sky of the greats in Guardiola’s Manchester. Today, the common Belgian citizenship remains the only point of contact between the two. De Ketelaere at Milan did not take root. A few will-o’-the-wisp at the beginning, good things at the end of August against Bologna, then the desert, a slow slide towards irrelevance. By now De Ketelaere is detached from the context, to put it in a cliché. It is not clear what the role is: winger, attacking midfielder, false center forward? Too many roles, little identity. His technique – which also exists – is not noticeable, the boy is unable to deploy it. De Ketelaere was wanted by Paolo Maldini and arrived in Milan at the end of an exhausting negotiation, resolved around 35 million, all inclusive. It is inexplicable that Stefano Pioli has not obtained anything from the boy in five months. It is a thunderous defeat, the player remains one of the most promising young Europeans. Perhaps De Ketelaere is paying for the fact that he moved to Milan in the wrong season, post-scudetto discharge. The team sat down and didn’t assimilate him, but he must rebel against the drowsiness, rediscover the courage to play. In this phase it is common that, having received the ball, he comes back and places it sloppily on some teammate. Zero goals, when in 2021-22, with Bruges, he had scored 18 in 49 games. It’s not possible that a Belgian international has “got it wrong” all of a sudden. The real De Ketelaere must be found, in order not to risk that he, sold off elsewhere, will show what he is capable of, in the manner of De Bruyne.
Illusion and disillusionment
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In the summer of 2021, Correa presented himself to Inter as best he could not. Two beautiful goals against Verona at the Bentegodi, a few hours after signing the contract: a great header, a great left foot. It seemed like the prologue to a wonderful union. Inter had to put Lukaku behind him, who was sold to Chelsea, and Simone Inzaghi had asked for and obtained Joaquin Correa, his protégé at Lazio. A talented striker, but discontinuous. Unstoppable on days of grace, useless on days of slack. Unfortunately for Inter, Correa, in this season and a half in Milan, has been more useless than unstoppable and the trend has been accentuated this season. Inzaghi can no longer turn it on. At Lazio he averaged 10 goals per season, 30 in three years. 6 total goals for Inter in 2021-22 and 3 overall goals in 2022-23, a figure that can be improved, because many matches between the league and various cups are missing. However, performances tend to deteriorate, Correa is increasingly marginal in the Inter Inzaghiana. He doesn’t even tune into the frequencies of Lautaro Martinez, an Argentine like him, a friend and teammate from the national team. He seems to be heading towards an early sunset, but it can’t end like this, at 28 years old. We assume it’s a matter of the head, we deduce it from certain renunciatory postures, body language doesn’t lie. Correa no longer believes in what he does or feels alien to Inter, and we don’t know which is worse. He offers a downward yield despite the coaching by Simone Inzaghi, the coach who has understood him the most in recent years. The illusion of the premiere at Bentegodi in August 2021 is involved in disillusionment, San Siro Interista has stopped believing in Correa and hopes that Marotta and Ausilio will be able to place him elsewhere, which is not easy unless you take into account a discrete capital loss. All that remains for Inter is to trust in the player’s pride. Somewhere inside Correa certainly retains self-love for his talent: it’s time to bring it out.
January 26 – 12:04
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