Right around Christmas, it appeared Weston McKennie might have finally found a path to some stability in terms of his standing at Juventus. After multiple summers of being out of the squad and then suddenly brought back by different managers, McKennie was reportedly talking about a new long-term contract that would certainly ease some worries about it being another summer of potential transfer drama.
But that was December.
As we sit here in the first weekend of July, that contract extension hasn’t arrived — and the main person with whom McKennie’s camp was negotiating with, Cristiano Giuntoli, is no longer employed by Juventus.
That has resulted in — you guessed it! — rumors that McKennie could be sold this summer. According to Tuttosport on Sunday, the new Damien Comolli-led front office doesn’t seem as keen as continuing those contract talks as Giuntoli was before he departed the club in early June. As contract talks have stalled, that has made McKennie an expendable player on the roster, according to Tuttosport, which means it would be the third straight summer in which the 26-year-old Texan is very much a candidate to leave Turin via transfer.
The price Juventus might want for McKennie if they are to sell him this summer? Somewhere between €15 million and €20 million.
“Same old story” from the front page of the Tuttosport website in the embedded post above seems right on the money. It’s now suddenly another summer of transfer speculation involving McKennie — just like it was two years ago with Max Allegri and just like it was last summer under Thiago Motta.
On both of those instances, McKennie found himself back in the squad come the start of the new season. It’s still too early to see if that’s going to be the case again — especially knowing that it’s a different general manager and head coach at the helm compared to 12 months ago.
But what we know is that things can always change when it comes to McKennie’s standing at Juventus. He was out of the squad completely under Allegri two summers ago until he was brought back in ahead of their preseason tour in the United States. It was the same type of situation under Motta last summer only for McKennie to come back into the squad and prove to be a valuable and versatile piece for a squad that had injuries everywhere.
Is that kind of player incredibly useful for a club like Juventus? Of course, but the way things stand with McKennie is that he’s entering the final year of his current contract that he signed on the eve of the 2024-25 season getting underway. So if contract talks have stalled like they have appeared to, then this could very well be the summer in which McKennie does actually leave Juventus.