Carlo Ancelotti knows Moise Kean from managing in Italy and says the Everton teenager is bound to need time to adapt to life in a new league and country.
The £25m striker has not been an instant success on Merseyside and an unhappy introduction to English football culminated in his humiliation at Old Trafford, when the caretaker Duncan Ferguson sent him on as a second-half substitute then withdrew him before the end.
“Kean is a player we tried to sign when I was at Napoli but he chose Everton ahead of us,” Ancelotti said as he prepared for his first game in charge against Burnley on Boxing Day. “He has fantastic quality and I’m sure he will be a top talent but he is 19 years old and everything is new for him here.
“I had the same with Hirving Lozano when he came to Napoli and he was two or three years older. When I was a player I remember Michel Platini arriving at Juventus from Saint-Étienne. It took him about six months to adjust, and that was Platini. We should always be patient with young players.”
Ancelotti was planning to spend the Christmas period in his wife’s home city of Vancouver before Everton’s ardent approaches won him over. “I was looking forward to the break but I prefer to work,” he said. “My wife has taken the holiday on her own and she will join me next week, then we will look for somewhere to live in the city of Liverpool.
“This is a football city, you can smell that as soon as you arrive. I have already met a few of the people, both Evertonians and Liverpool fans, and they have all been generous and kind. I know there is a big rivalry here but they are respectful, I think.”
