Mikel Arteta and Charles De Ketelaere (Photos by Shaun Botterill, Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Arsenal are one of a number of clubs keeping an eye on Atalanta attacking midfielder Charles De Ketelaere, who has revived his career following a difficult spell at AC Milan.
Once regarded as a huge young talent at Club Brugge, De Ketelaere failed to make an impact at Milan, but now looks to be showing his true potential again after joining Atalanta, with growing interest from top clubs in the Premier League.
Sources familiar with the player’s situation have informed CaughtOffside that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is a big admirer of De Ketelaere, while other big names like Manchester City, Tottenham, Newcastle United and West Ham have also been watching the 23-year-old.
As of yet, there have not been any approaches made by these clubs, but CaughtOffside understands that Arsenal are weighing up internally whether or not to step up their interest in De Ketelaere in the near future, while Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Georgiy Sudakov is also among the north Londoners’ targets in that area of the pitch.
Charles De Ketelaere transfer: Could we see the Belgian playmaker join Arsenal?
Gunners fans would surely relish seeing a creative talent like this joining their club, but it probably won’t be easy or affordable for them, with the player only recently making his move to Atalanta permanent.
The Serie A giants also sold star midfielder Teun Koopmeiners this summer, and have suitors for Ederson as well, so they won’t want to be letting too many of their star names go in quick succession.
CaughtOffside have also been told that West Ham could be a surprise name to watch in this saga as they’re very strongly considering De Ketelaere as an ambitious target in case they lose key attacking players like Lucas Paqueta or Mohammed Kudus in upcoming transfer windows.
This could mean West Ham are quicker to this one than Arsenal, but the Belgium international himself would surely choose the Emirates Stadium over the London Stadium if faced with those two choices.
