Tottenham fancy signing Weston McKennie and Fabio Paratici even had him above Rodrigo Bentancur on his January transfer wish list.
Tottenham have already landed two free transfers this summer with Fraser Forster and Ivan Perisic both arriving in recent weeks.
Antonio Conte will understandably want more additions though with Tottenham back in the Champions League next season.
Another midfielder is bound to be a priority given that Harry Winks looks likely to leave this summer – and Fabio Paratici could look to the Italian market again.
Tottenham fancy signing Weston McKennie
Paratici has used his knowledge of the Italian market to sign the likes of Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski.
Yet when Paratici called up his former club Juventus for Bentancur on deadline day in January, he may have actually been settling for a target lower on his list.
That may surprise some given that Bentancur has been a major success story since arriving from Juventus.
Yet Football London’s Alasdair Gold has now taken to YouTube to claim that Paratici actually had Juventus ace McKennie higher on his wish list.
Gold claims that Paratici absolutely loves McKennie and had earmarked him for Tottenham’s midfield before instead signing Bentancur.
Gold added that he thinks Paratici may try again this summer given his admiration of the American international.
“I do think Spurs will seriously look at Weston McKennie this summer,” said Gold. “Paratici spoke to his representatives in January about a potential move, Paratici adores McKennie; he brought him to Juventus from Schalke.”
“From what I understand, he was actually above Bentancur on his January wish list for a central midfielder. I wouldn’t be stunned if Spurs and Paratici look at that deal because he likes him that much,” he added.
McKennie, 23, played well in the first half of the season before picking up a significant foot injury against Villarreal in February.
The US star is now back and ready for pre-season training, something that Tottenham will be encouraged by after such a frustrating layoff.
McKennie is primarily a box-to-box player and whilst his goalscoring numbers aren’t anything to write home about, he could off something going forward.
Juventus look to be re-signing Paul Pogba this summer so there is a chance for Tottenham to swoop in for McKennie with rumours suggesting talks have taken place.
Hailed as relentless by McKennie’s former USA Under-20 coach Tab Ramos, McKennie could be just what Conte likes in his engine room.
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