Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa are both prepared to meet Juventus’ demands for United States national team star Weston McKennie, with Spurs ready to go well above the fee in order to secure the fiery midfielder to North London.
Building on reports earlier this week that Nuno Espirito Santo was ready to swap Tanguy Ndombele for the American, who ProSoccerTalk reported is happy to stay in Turin.
Yet multiple reports in Italy say Aston Villa is ready to pay Juventus’ asking price of $35 million for the USMNT midfielder and possible future captain.
The Birmingham Mail says the move makes sense for Villa after Dean Smith was rebuffed in attempts to buy Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse and Arsenal’s Emile Smith-Rowe.
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The Telegraph says that Spurs are looking at a $55 million purchase of McKennie, who would slot next to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and mark a significant upgrade over Harry Winks and unproven but highly-rated Oliver Skipp.
McKennie, who turns 23 on Saturday, has seven goals and four assists in 24 caps for the United States. He’s scored six times for Juve since moving from Schalke, where he had five goals and seven assists in 91 appearances.
Both Villa and Spurs would promise the chance to start right away, so this wouldn’t be a matter of picking the easiest chance to playing time ahead of a World Cup (though he’d arguably be a bigger piece of Villa’s puzzle).
We won’t complain at all if McKennie joins Dean Smith’s Villa project, but McKennie versus very close friend Christian Pulisic in a London derby after being on opposite sides of the Revierderby? Yes, please.