He clearly has a lot of potential, but is a player that scored 18 in 49 in the Belgian league really ready to spearhead Man Utd?
It's a really good point but it should be said that last season was his first professionally as an out and out striker and even then he filled in pretty much everywhere across the midfield and even left wing back so it wasn't like those 49 games were always spent up front. (30 games as a ST, 5 games as a second striker, 4 as AM, 3 as CM, 3 as LWB, 2 as RW and 2 as LW).
I see De Ketelaere at a similar level to how Darwin Nunez was a year ago (plus Nunez is 1 year and 9 months older). Nunez scored 13 goals and 12 assists in the Portuguese league in 2020/2021. That summer, he grew into his frame and became more aggressive - the qualities CDK lacks currently, although he is miles better than Nunez technically IMHO. He went on to score 34 goals and 4 assists the next season which earnt him a huge money move to one of the best teams in the world (*pukes*). CDK has just scored 18 goals and 10 assists as someone who has just turned 21 - better stats than Nunez at the same age.
So you're right - CDK probably isn't ready to be a starting striker for us. We would need to bear with him through inconsistencies and being a bit light weight but hopefully we finally have a manager who can make players better. Signing him would made most sense if Ronaldo was still around to give him breathing room to develop. However, I think we'll really struggle to sign a true Man Utd quality ST for less than double what Brugge want for CDK. There's only one striker of similar potential going for 30m and that's Hugo Ekitike who I believe to be even more raw than CDK.
I'm seeing some of the options spoken about and feeling glum. Belotti is nowhere near United quality. Osimhen will be 100m plus. Isak's got a lot to prove and Sociedad are apparently asking for 70m. Schick is decent but has failed at big clubs before and has some injury worries. Scamacca looks a bit average to me. Jonathan David's really raw and I don't think he'll ultimately be better than CDK (and is at least 10m more expensive). Dybala isn't a proper striker and would be an expensive disaster IMHO. There's really not a lot on the market. We defo need a ST but we also have big needs elsewhere so we can't afford to spend huge sums. 30m for De Ketelaere looks a golden opportunity to me, even if he won't quite be top class for another year or two. Better than signing him off Milan/Leicester/Napoli in 2-3 years for like 80m.