Another American star seems headed Elland Road as Weston McKennie is flying to Leeds to sign a loan deal from Juventus to play in the Premier League at least until the end of the season. Leeds United has essentially become the home of the USMNT’s starting midfield. With that in mind it would seem like great news for the team to have both Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie playing side by side at club level.
A deeper dive into the situation though may not render such positive news. Weston McKennie needs to make sure that he’s able to adapt to the English. Something that’s not necessarily a given. Especially when it comes to players making the move from Italy to England. That’s why we beg to ask, is Weston McKennie’s move to Leeds a good idea?
Play Time With His USMNT Midfield Partner & Commercial Success
49ers enterprises owns about a 44% stake in Leeds United. They are by no means the only American owners within the Premier League. However, they seem to be the only ones who are betting big on the American market. The McKennie move to go along with Adams and Aaronson makes it clear that Leeds want to be the favorite team for American audiences. If they can achieve at least some of the US market share through this move it could bring forth huge commercial success. Which is certainly vital for a team that not too long ago was completely lost in the Premiership with few hopes to ever return to the Premier League.
It’s not just the money aspect that could benefit from this move. The USMNT could certainly benefit greatly from having two of its most important players playing on the same team. Especially players that make up the US midfield. Pulisic may take up all of the headlines, but Tyler Adams is currently the best US born player on the planet. In fact, there’s an argument to be made that his personal career would’ve benefited from a move away from Leeds. At this point though he’s vital to what Leeds want to do on and off the field. We’re certainly hoping that McKennie and Adams can find success on the field. There’s one thing though that we’re worried about.
McKennie’s Work Ethic Could Be An Issue
Weston McKennie has had his fair share of off the field issues already in his still young career. There was of course that incident with the USMNT where he decided it was a good idea to bring in a female companion to the team hotel. These types of things are nothing new. Players have done similar things for years. It’s just not the ideal look that you want out of one of the faces of your program. There’s no doubt that McKennie is one of the faces of the program for the USMNT. That’s actually why he got away with a slap on the wrist after that incident.
Perhaps the biggest issue is that his off the field antics affect his play on the field. That was evident during the World Cup and even before the tournament. Gregg Berhalter always took him off before the end of the game. Whenever McKennie would leave the field the team felt that drop in talent and overall quality. There are two ways to look at this, either Berhalter is quite bad at making adjustments. We would agree that’s part of it. The other issue though is that perhaps McKennie is not physically able to play 90 minutes at a high level. That also seems to be an issue. The Premier League presents a steeper physical challenge for players compared to Serie A. McKennie needs to get himself in better shape fast if he wants to succeed at Leeds!
