Weston McKennie is keen to secure a summer move to St Mary’s as Southampton enter talks over a £20 million deal for the Schalke talisman, according to Sky Sports.
The phrase ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ might come to mind when discussing a player who is equally comfortable as a box-to-box midfielder, a deep-lying enforcer and a dynamic full-back. But McKennie has proved throughout his short career that he has the attitude and ability to stand out in multiple positions.
It is the ‘number six’ role that the USA international will be asked to fill at Southampton, however.
The Saints have identified the all-action American as the man to fill a Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg-shaped void at the heart of Ralph Hasenhuttl’s engine room.
And, according to Sky, McKennie is open to the idea of moving to a Southampton side who, since returning to the top-flight eight years ago, have set countless young prospects on the path to the very top, from Dusan Tadic to Virgil van Dijk, Adam Lallana to Sadio Mane.
In Hasenhuttl, a man who worked wonders in the Bundesliga with Ingolstadt and RB Leipzig, McKennie will also be working alongside a coach who has admired him ever since he was a precocious teenager rising through the ranks at the Veltins Arena (Express).
The 21-year-old has his heart set on a move to England and, according to Kicker, turned down a move to an ambitious and big-spending Hertha Berlin side earlier this week.
“Weston’s a really big dominant presence,” close friend and USMNT team-mate Christian Pulisic told the Bundesliga’s official website last year.
“He’s really good at winning balls. He wins everything.”
Pierre-Emile who?
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