Aston Villa have held talks with Juventus over a potential deal this month for the American midfielder Weston McKennie, according to Fabrizio Romano.
What’s the latest?
There have been reports linking McKennie away from Turin for a number of months now with the Premier League side, Tottenham Hotspur, credited with an interest for a while now.
And it is now believed there is an opportunity for the 24-year-old to leave the Serie A side this month with the Italian club currently in a real spot of bother off the field.
Speaking to CBS Sports, Romano has now claimed Unai Emer’s Villa are one of the sides to have recently discussed a potential deal for the American:
(3:25) “So let’s see what happens with McKennie because they had some conversations with Aston Villa, with other English clubs. At the moment, Juventus have no received any official bids yet but for McKennie it’s a possibility to leave the club in January.”
The American dream
Although Romano claims there have been talks over a potential deal for McKennie, he does also say that there is yet to be any formal bids made.
In a recent report from the Daily Mail, it has been suggested that the midfielder could be able to leave Turin this month for a fee in the region of £26m-£30m.
And with the current Juventus regime believing McKennie is a player who is replaceable, it does seem as if there is a real opportunity to be had with some Premier League clubs showing an interest.
Despite Juventus reportedly being open to selling McKennie, the midfielder has played a fairly significant role in Massimiliano Allegri’s side this season with 14 appearances and 11 starts in Serie A.
However, in comparison to Villa’s Douglas Luiz, McKennie has provided fewer tackles, fewer shot-creating actions, fewer passes and fewer goal contributions so far this season (via Fbref).
So there would have to be the question of where would McKennie fit into this Villa side?
Emery set Villa out with two holding midfielders in their last game against Wolverhampton Wanderers with Boubacar Kamara partnering Luiz.
McKennie has marginally provided more of an attacking threat than Kamara this season, but again, the Villa man has offered more defensively with over three times as many tackles per 90 than McKennie (via Fbref).
Given Tottenham’s director of football, Fabio Paratici, is believed to want to reunite with the player this month, there is clearly something McKennie has that the stats do not necessarily show.
And during his time in Qatar for the winter World Cup, it was apparent the 24-year-old did impress with Jamie Carragher taking to Twitter to hail the American as “excellent”.
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