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Weston McKennie’s days at Juventus are reportedly numbered as transfer rumors fly

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Weston McKennie enjoyed a memorable first season at Juventus, a year that included playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, scoring an unforgettable Champions League goal against Barcelona, and lifting a pair of trophies.

Unfortunately for the U.S. men’s national team star, his first season at Juventus is looking like it could be his last.

According to reports out of Italy, new Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri does not see McKennie in his plans, which has led the Serie A giants to put McKennie on the market.

McKennie has already been linked to multiple English Premier League clubs, as well as Bayern Munich, though the Bayern link is already being shot down by German media.

So what went wrong for McKennie? Quite simply, he’s the victim of circumstance, as Andrea Pirlo’s removal as head coach meant the departure of the very man who saw McKennie as a good fit for Juventus. It was Pirlo who sought to bring him in, and Pirlo who made McKennie a regular part of the Juventus midfield rotation last season.

McKennie had a successful first season, but Allegri has come in and, according to reports, doesn’t see McKennie as a good fit for the way he wants to play. That can happen, and for a team like Juventus, it makes much more sense to sell McKennie when there is a viable market for him than to just have him sitting on the bench, seeing little time.

McKennie isn’t likely to be too upset about the turn of events, especially if it means securing a move to the Premier League, which is where the 22-year-old has always dreamed of playing.

McKennie would be a good fit in the Premier League, with his fast and physical style well-suited for the English game. Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton are some of the teams that have been linked, but the reality is McKennie is unlikely to move unless one of those teams can match the $35 million price tag Juventus has placed on him.

With a week to go before the close of the summer transfer window, there is still plenty of time for a McKennie transfer to be put together, but as things stand, it is looking like any deal will take place much closer to the transfer deadline, on August 31.


What do you think of this development? Where would you like to see McKennie go? Which of the reported teams linked to him do you see being the best fit?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Allegri didn’t have a problem football wise with McKinnie, it was his immaturity and off the field demeanor which meant that Locateli was more valuable and McKinnie could bring in more than Aaron Ramsey (who got hurt) Ives, stop sugar coating things and tell the whole truth! He needs to get more professional off the field and keep possesion on the field more, especially in the final third. He’s a pro now so let’s be 100% about his issues. Tottenham, Villa or West Ham may sign him since 35 mil euros is doable.

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  2. Being selfish here but the late transfer or Liam probably means Weston might not make it to the USMNT for September qualifying matches. Sucks maybe Juve find no takers and then must release Westin for qualifying. Either way you slice it not a good time for him.

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  3. In Westin’s defense, Allegri has said he sees him as an offensive weapon. He is being shopped, because he’s the only person Juve can make a good profit on due to their books not being good; they got him for a steal & his stock is hot. They’ve also added depth in Locatelli and probably rate him higher than Westin.

    Allegri has not publicly said that Weston doesn’t fit into his plans. Juve is in enough competitions that he will be needed. He’s probably 4th-5th option in the midfield at this point, but I think there is a lot of speculation after him being out of the team week 1 for yellow card accumulation. Nobody can say that Allegri has made his thoughts on Westin known.

    Westin was a center piece for Pirlo, but potentially just a bit part player for Allegri.

    His exclusion at the end of pre-season shows that Juve have probably received interest from multiple clubs, but I do believe that the front office won’t sell him unless they get the $35 mil or more. Nedved rates Westin high for sure; they know the diamond they found. It’s win win for Juve…just might not be ideal for Westin.

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  4. juve went from perennial first to fourth. i am sure people will give them crap for selling our guy but they eroded and are trying to fix that. these things are not always fair and for example i thought dortmund the year before pulisic was sold should have played him more. but i don’t blame them for fiddling with personnel.

    in terms of mckennie specifically, he’s kind of a jack of all trades master of none. he plays 6 and he will chase and tackle but he’s not quite adams in terms of soccer IQ. he’s a little sloppy for a 10, too many giveaways. he likes to crash the box, decently productive, gets header and volley goals, but that’s kind of a forward thing. i am not sure if most coaches are as eager for a tweener “8” as american coaches are. IMO they generally want a specialist. you create things well. you destroy them well. he’s young but he could use to really hone one side or the other some more.

    fwiw my dream US midfield is reyna pulisic adams, specialists. i would be bringing mckennie’s box crashing off the bench. i think if he focused on defense and wised up he could surpass acosta as adams’ understudy. or he could be the attacking supersub. i feel like US fans get frozen in time at your role and status when you came in. i think if we didn’t protect incumbents and deployed people right he’s a utility supersub bench guy unless he ups his game. he does a lot of things decently well but really needs some stuff which he does excellently.

    fwiw2 i would like to see some of the guy who slalomed portugal for a goal. this whole team looks most dangerous with the non-9s running at people. they are less effective trying to play keepaway. if you want keepaway it’s not mckennie’s thing. i am sure this will be unpopular because i am messing with the present. but as this moves to the future, we have better technical players and then better destroyers, and how does he fit into that equation.

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  5. a downside on all the big club leg-humping is periodically dortmund gets bored with pulisic, so to speak, like this. big clubs are sold as panacea but they can forget you (anyone remember kyle scott?), loan you (miazga, CCV), or get bored. and because he will garner a high transfer price, the solution to his problems on offer here is more big club, apparently. personally i hope he learns the howard/dempsey lesson and modulates his ambition a little to find a more permanent home. but we’ll see if his fee allows that.

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  6. Not sure teams will pay that price. Even Tottenham is keeping Kane for the time being. If Juventus can’t sell him, it may have to be a loan or he will be stuck on the bench there.

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    • an unstated aspect of this is the pandemic and playing games to empty houses is probably hitting their bottom lines. since teams across the board had that problem, if you’re broke, probably so are they, so who has the money to buy your guy from you? they are probably selling as well.
      and they all have to work within financial fair play. so, yeah, lot of teams throwing around big “listing prices.” good luck getting them. i expect some deadline deals for less than listing because some teams are probably financially strapped, and while posturing for as much as they can, will end up taking what they can get on deadline day-ish to pay their debts.

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  7. I dont mean to be the nay sayer, cause I only saw him play a handful of times.

    but Juve didnt win the league. The first time in a decade….they have to change up something. McKinnie is part of that I guess. Maybe he goes to team that can win again, but doubtful. $35 million is pretty limiting. He is only 23, but $35 million means he need to be passed on for a very high dollar amount and fairly quickly, a gamble for most of the teams looking to buy and move players.

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  8. Meh. It’s fine. He acquitted himself well in his first season there, and if the coach doesn’t want him, then time to move on while your stock is high. Juve has become the island of misfit toys anyway…. the entire midfield (outside of the excellent Chiesa) is a bunch of flameouts from other places (Arthur, Rabiot, Ramsey) and unremarkable prospects (Betancour, Kulusevski). Ronaldo is 50/50 to stay, not that he is really helping the team advance. Good time to leave — already have the brand name on your resume, and it ain’t like Juve is winning the CL anytime soon.

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    • they had a formula going that won, whatever its UCL issues. they messed with the formula and blew up. so that “well, were they going to win UCL” cuts both ways. half the problem to me is they tried. they took apart the serie A juggernaut to chase UCL, got neither. got worse at both. i would revert back to the old, tight defense formula because this is not a time to try to spend your way upwards on offense, eg, go watch barca try and tiki taka through a season with fewer tools than before. vs atletico chopping and countering. to me, on a leaner budget, tidy up the defense. gold cup 2019, you can’t lose if you barely get scored on.

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  9. I find this hard to comprehend since he had an excellent first year. I can understand it in a way, but it still seems crazy since their asking price is pretty astronomical for someone they suppose3dly don’t value. As long as he goes to a top 4 league I guess it will be okay. Hopefully he goes to a contending team, one that will at least make the Europa League.

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    • I think it comes down to the economic reality that they don’t have anybody in midfield (beyond Chiesa, who they won’t sell) who has any transfer value at all. Juve are stuck with too many guys like Ramsey… insane wages that don’t match performance/ So they are shopping McKennie on the chance that some EPL side (English sides are the only ones with transfer money right now) might nibble. I guess they saw the $11 million Werder Bremen got for Sargent.
      ******************************************
      For fun, here is salarysport’s estimate of Juve’s salary structure. Have you even heard of any of the players making less than Weston?
      https://salarysport.com/football/serie-a/juventus/

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      • Good stuff, Gomer! You help make it easier to understand this contractual soccer/futbol wages, marketing, financial stuff. Trying to explain to a person about soccer contracts and/or transfers, when they understand NBA, NFL, MLB contracts is an apples to oranges convo. Some of your posts, have helped me in the past.

      • Thanks for the link Gomer. Quite revealing that its all about economics. McKennie is equal to or greater than Ramsey with a wage bill 1/4 of Ramsey. If you are a buying team that in itself is attractive, never mind 21 vs 29 year old.

      • My favorite line in the link: “Juventus play in the Serie A, the second division of football in Scotland.” Hopefully the rest of the info is accurate!

      • Glad you noticed that too! My guess is either the site admins have a good sense of humor, or perhaps they were victims of a little prank. In any event, it’s important to remember that the data on the site is always “best estimate” using available sources. Contracts are not public info, of course. But I’ve found the resource to be robust enough to be worth using.

  10. If Allegri does not rate McKennie and doesn’t see Mckennie as a good fit to Allegri’s style of play, that will be a very good reason for McKennie to get the hell out, especially WCQ is starting in September. On the other hand, Juventus has put a $35M price tag on McKennie, which in a way, the Italian giant does think highly of McKennie’s market value. It’s kind of contradicting.

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    • Not really. I had high hopes for Bradley when he went there, but Houllier didn’t seem to rate him and he never looked the part. Vassilev isn’t Premiership quality and Lichaj didn’t really find his level until he moved to the Championship and became a core member of some of those teams, like Hull and Forest. If McKennie went to Villa, he would be one of the main men at the club.

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    • Unlikely. Not sure he has the status or consistent years of performanc. He’s not getting in ahead of a fit Thiago, Keita (who is keeping out Thiago now), Henderson, Fabinho, and now Harvey Elliot. Oh and i forget the hometown boy Curtis Jones. Milner is proven and reliable though old.

      Also Liverpool signings are all targets they have been scouting for multiple years. Like Konate. They wanted Konate last year. He was the plan but when they got all the injuries, they couldn’t get him midseason last year from a champions league side. They took Ozan Kabak but its telling they didn’t resign him as Konate was the long term plan. Thus if McKennie was being scouted already (unlikely since he just got to Juve) yes, maybe they’d make a move. But at this time they don’t impulse buy. plus many feel they are pooling money an Erling Haaland push next season. I’d add that Liverpool also have issues with foriegn player roster spots. Shaqiri just left so that opens one. But it means they don’t have a ton of wiggle room to bring in players.

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    • Just to emphasise the point. I’m not saying it can’t happen. Just that if they do it they were already scouting him and want to pull the trigger.

      It would be a surprise because he’s not a name i’ve heard of them scouting in the past at all. That said, I didn’t know they had interest in Widjanaldum when they went after him (or Tsimikas for that matter). But, like lots of people knew they were after Keita, Thiago, Konate, Mane, Fabinho,

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  11. Villa, please! I’ve wanted an American at Villa for years. Goalkeepers don’t count.

    He’s suited to the Premiership. He’ll become a fan favorite wherever he goes.

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