Weston McKennie

[CVByrne]

Positives I see about McKennie 

1) Has experience of Premier League already so knows the pace of the game here. 

2) On back of a bad loan at Leedsbhe had his best ever season at Juve. This shows character. 

3) Has plenty of Champions League and International football experience. 

4) Has physical attributes, work rate and fitness that are valued highly on England and German leagues and less so in Italy.

5) Juventus wanted to keep him and had offered him new contract which he turned down. 

6) Is very versatile having played as CDM, CM, AMC, RW and RWB. Feels like a right footed McGinn in terms of versatility.

7) Is a player who would improve under Emery with the detail and faith given to him by an elite coach.

If he's costing us around the £20m mark and 80k a week wages that's a very good bit of business 

[villa4europe]

16 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

What does straight cash do for us? What benefit does it give us on the football pitch? 

We are getting a cash value for Luiz and then buying two players with it. Two players we want from Juve. 

Some ignorant Villa fans who love to complain are saying we are being forced to take players we don't want. It's such a laughable idea. 

Your point 2. in your post is the one most accurate. Emery wants these two players if the price is right for us. 

why is that a laughable idea?

why is it not plausible that Juve don't have the cash to make a straight up purchase, that's very plausible

is it ignorant or naïve just to simply think that monchi and unai are simply footballing geniuses and we are getting 2 players that we want rather than we are getting 2 players as a compromise to make a deal that has to happen happen, agree @Zatman juve do have other players, no doubt a big part of this negotiation involved discussions on other players, no doubt we asked for someone better and they offered someone worse 

I'm not going to blindly believe that this is something we want just because of emery, its ignorant to believe that we picked up the phone to juve and said "we want mckennie and IJ" and they replied "yeah thats great cos we want luiz" to which we said "thats brilliant cos we're looking to cash in on him"

we're playing the best hand available to us, doesn't mean we're holding aces

[Don_Simon]

2 hours ago, CVByrne said:

This is the problem for you and Villa fans who think this way. It's just completely false narrative that we are being forced to take players we don't want from Juve. 

Are we being Forced to take Gallagher or Chelsea being forced to take Duran if they move this window too? 

The deal for Dougie and McKennie isn't one that popped up, it's clear the two clubs have been tracking both players. We've been tracking McKennie for years. 

Illing Junior and McKennie are players on our clubs list for positions we want to fill. Monchi has 3 or 4 per position as he has said before in his series of talks on his process. Without doubt those players are in our lists.

So when it comes to doing the deal, we are saving ourselves negotiating with 2 others clubs to get two other players if we wanted just cash from Juve. 

I think this moving early in window is savvy from us. If we have landed in 4 players by end of June we're on the way to getting a good preseason with them. 

Voice of reason. 

With context and clarity. 

Scenes.

[PaulMcGrath_5]

Dougie didn't track the run! Is he now fat and rubbish? 

Edited June 13 by PaulMcGrath_5

[The_Steve]

14 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Dougie didn't track the run! Is he now fat and rubbish? 

Friendly or not, some terrible defending. Good run and pass from Weston. 

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

Positives I see about McKennie 

1) Has experience of Premier League already so knows the pace of the game here. 

2) On back of a bad loan at Leedsbhe had his best ever season at Juve. This shows character. 

3) Has plenty of Champions League and International football experience. 

4) Has physical attributes, work rate and fitness that are valued highly on England and German leagues and less so in Italy.

5) Juventus wanted to keep him and had offered him new contract which he turned down. 

6) Is very versatile having played as CDM, CM, AMC, RW and RWB. Feels like a right footed McGinn in terms of versatility.

7) Is a player who would improve under Emery with the detail and faith given to him by an elite coach.

If he's costing us around the £20m mark and 80k a week wages that's a very good bit of business 

8 ) Emery tried to sign him previously , so clearly there is something that Emery likes about him , and having won more trophies than anyone else on VT , I think I'll trust him on this one 

[CVByrne]

10 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

8 ) Emery tried to sign him previously , so clearly there is something that Emery likes about him , and having won more trophies than anyone else on VT , I think I'll trust him on this one 

Totally agree. If he's valued around £20m I think this is a good price for this player. We need the versatile players when we have specialists like Kamara who can play only one role as CDM essentially. 

[TheMightyVillans]

55 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Dougie didn't track the run! Is he now fat and rubbish? 

Well that's awkward 

[Teale's 'tache]

I'm looking forward to when he finally signs and has a bad game because it will be funny seeing some folk on here lose their minds, but mainly I'm interested to see which news outlet runs a headline similar to...

'Weston has a Super Mare'

I'll get my coat.

 

[IrishVilla10]

3 hours ago, il_serpente said:

Interesting that Villa are purportedly having to settle for getting less than their valuation of Luiz and take players they don't want in exchange when the media had been flogging stories about how Arsenal and Liverpool both want him.  Both of those clubs could surely afford to pay straight cash, and if both are truly interested we wouldn't have to let him go on a cutrate deal.  It seems that either:

1.  The Arsenal and Liverpool interest is all a media fabrication to get clicks;

2.  Emery really does rate McKennie and Iling; or

3.  Though not the ideal solution, Emery and Monchi rate McKennie and Iling enough that getting them and a little cash is seen as better for Villa than getting full value in cash but helping the Gunners and Scousers strengthen.

Could also be the fact juventus are so keen so early, an arsenal transfer could take us into mid august. Get it done now and get him replaced sooner 

[DJBOB]

3 hours ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Scored a 7.0 on Sofascore vs Brazil last night. 

 

2 hours ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Dougie didn't track the run! Is he now fat and rubbish? 

It’s funny how much of that stat line is a McGinn stat line. Only 18 passes and 32 touches but 3 key passes and a lot of duels won. 
 
In the first half, he played as a LCM in a 433 with Yunus and Reyna (none of whom are 6’s). The problem with that position was that he played next to Pulisic, who almost always cuts in from the left. As a result, he and Pulisic were right next to each other and couldn’t really combine in a meaningful way. 
 
In the second half, he played more on the right, especially when Johnny came on as a proper 6, and then McKennie was able to receive the ball further up the line. Because Weah and Aaronson naturally stayed wide, McKennie had more space to operate. 
 
Overall - a quiet game in an unbalanced midfield. Gregg reminds me so much of Gerrard, not a scooby of how to actually manage.

But the clip is a microcosm of the difference between McKennie and Luiz. Luiz is an orchestrator while McKennie is action. Whereas Luiz has the composure and the ability to pull the strings with the play in front of him, McKennie receives it between the lines - shrugs off a Luiz challenge (how many times have we seen that) - accelerates and should have recorded an assist.

Edited June 13 by DJBOB

[duke313]

2 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

 

It’s funny how much of that stat line is a McGinn stat line. Only 18 passes and 32 touches but 3 key passes and a lot of duels won. 
 
In the first half, he played as a LCM in a 433 with Yunus and Reyna (none of whom are 6’s). The problem with that position was that he played next to Pulisic, who almost always cuts in from the left. As a result, he and Pulisic were right next to each other and couldn’t really combine in a meaningful way. 
 
In the second half, he played more on the right, especially when Johnny came on as a proper 6, and then McKennie was able to receive the ball further up the line. Because Weah and Aaronson naturally stayed wide, McKennie had more space to operate. 
 
Overall - a quiet game in an unbalanced midfield. Gregg reminds me so much of Gerrard, not a scooby of how to actually manage.

 But the clip is a microcosm of the difference between McKennie and Luiz. Luiz is an orchestrator while McKennie is action. 

Us signing McKennie make a lot more sense when you start thinking of him not as a replacement for Luiz but as competition for McGinn.

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, duke313 said:

Us signing McKennie make a lot more sense when you start thinking of him not as a replacement for Luiz but as competition for McGinn.

McGinn is also 30 soon and we along with Scotland have ran him into the ground in recent seasons. A 60 minute McGinn for McKennie sub would bring energy

[Panto_Villan]

2 hours ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Dougie didn't track the run! Is he now fat and rubbish? 

I think the scorching heat emanating from McKennie's body meant Dougie was unable to approach.

[PaulMcGrath_5]

1 minute ago, Panto_Villan said:

I think the scorching heat emanating from McKennie's body meant Dougie was unable to approach.

All about those fibres.

Edited June 13 by PaulMcGrath_5

[chrisvilla4]

That's back end of the season Douglarsh right there. 

[PaulMcGrath_5]

 

[david-avfc]

He could be a very good addition to the squad however I think the disappointment is in how the deal has come about, selling Luiz on the cheap and bringing him in return… If we sold Luiz to Juve or whoever else for £60m+ and then signed McKennie separately for £12-15m it would be more palatable. But the 2 players + €20m seems £10-15m short to me, we’ve either undervalued Luiz or overvalued the players coming, in especially as both are out of contract next summer.

[mjmooney]

[zak]

19 minutes ago, david-avfc said:

He could be a very good addition to the squad however I think the disappointment is in how the deal has come about, selling Luiz on the cheap and bringing him in return… If we sold Luiz to Juve or whoever else for £60m+ and then signed McKennie separately for £12-15m it would be more palatable. But the 2 players + €20m seems £10-15m short to me, we’ve either undervalued Luiz or overvalued the players coming, in especially as both are out of contract next summer.

i think you may be undervaluing McKennie. Not that i think hes amazing or anything but 12-15m isnt alot these days. I think hes wortth 20m and so is probably Illing Jr so your talking close to 60m and not going to a rival