Westin’ away again in Margheritaville: McKennie at Juventus

There are pockets of racism in Italy and among Italian fans but McKennie hasn't really experienced that from what I have read or heard in any of the daily sports publications and media.

Having said that, I do believe he is scrutinized not because of the color of his skin but because he is one of the first few Americans to apply his trade in the Serie A.

For this reason, he is judged differently.

Its just part of the hard headed (testa dura) Italian mentality that Americans can't play soccer.

Again that mindset and perception is changing but slowly.

The main beef with Weston is consistency.

His criticisms are nothing like what CR7's faced at the end of his Juve run though so by comparison, I think Wes is kind of lucky.

 

You must have missed it:
Juventus ban 3 Parma fans over racist abuse of McKennie

 

Yeah, I’m an Italian citizen, lived in Italy and am aware of the racial problem as I posted previously but I still don’t believe it is the main reason on why McKennie is being scrutinized or that it affects his play on the field.

He wouldn’t have lasted as long as he has in Italy and especially at Juve for 5 years if it were such an issue.

As a matter of fact, a club like Juve will have gotten rid of him a long time ago if he was cutting it.

They tried to get rid of him when they loaned him to Leeds in 2023 but then he came back and proved him wrong.

The main criticism is his inconsistent play.

 

Literally no one, not even me, said racism was "the main reason" for Wes' extra scrutiny or being more easily dismissed by the media, or said anything about racism and his playing time.

I responded to a very, in my opinion, obviously correct post about some of the media scrutiny/discounting of Wes being because he was American. I added that was, in my experience, true for Italy and Italian soccer media - and was especially true for Wes because he is "also" Black and free spirited/goofy/fun - ie. not seen as "serious" a footie player as some.

From the Udinese situation last year to Wes and Parma to Serie A running perennial anti-racism campaigns (and some teams even refusing to participate) there is no question that Italian football management, at the very least, see it as a problem. The idea that either 1) we know more than them or 2) there isn't some undercurrent of institutionalized/cultural racism (and Italian footie xenophobia in general) at work that colors, at least in the margins, how Wes (and Leao btw) are discussed/perceived in the media and among fans seems willfully naive at best.

And I think the immediately, knee-jerk impulse to aggressively dismiss it, without even considering the flow of the discussion, both troubling and part of the ongoing problem.

 

It’s not a knee jerk reaction nor did I ever dismiss anything of the sort.

I even acknowledged racism was an issue but I still retain this had nothing to do with McKennie , his play or what the public thinks of him.

Again , I have been a Juve fan since the late 70’s read and hear everything that is said and written about him in Italy on a daily basis and none of what is being said on this board about him is what’s going on.

I just got off the phone with all my cousins and friends and they are criticizing him because he is American and for his inconsistent play on the field.

 

I was not referring to your post regarding "knee-jerk" reaction. Apologies for any confusion.

 

No big deal.

 

In unrelated news, Wes started and went the distance in a 0-1 win over Bologna.

 

Who?

 

How's his waistline look? Man-boobs?

 

I'm going to leave the race part out of it and focus on the consistency part....

On the one hand, I kind of get it because I'd like Wes to hit 100% of his passes and score a goal every game, too. But, on the other hand, I think about his time at Juve and how he has very consistently been one of the better players on the team even though he came in with extremely low expectations.

When Juve supporters like you and your family compare him to, say, Locatelli, how does that go? Has Locatelli been consistently good? How is he viewed as compared to Wes seeing as how they came in at completely different numbers and expectations? I would look for other players to ask about comparisons for, but McKennie has been at the club for much longer than just about anyone except for Locatelli.

It just doesn't seem like Wes is one that Juve fans should be complaining about....

 

Locatelli Is considered average amongst Juve and Italian national team players.

You have to remember , Juventus, traditionally, was always at the forefront of having the best players both internationally and who appeared for the Italian national team.

That is no longer the case and the bar is very high.

This team just came off of winning 9 straight scudetti and now can’t even manage a CL spot.

As a matter of fact, I don’t think there is one Italian born player anyway who plays for Juventus that is all that great for either club or country.

 

Juventus fans want Loca out as well. One of the few things most fans agree is that there are maybe 3 players who are at the standard for Juventus XI. Yildiz, Bremer (question mark post ACL), and maybe Thuram/Cambiaso. The rest should be subs at most in a proper Juve.

It isn't Wes' fault that huge amounts of money is spent on busts and he continues to play massive minutes. That's probably more indicative of why we haven't competed for the Serie A title his entire time here.

 

Wes could definitely play a role on a Serie A title contender. You're telling me that if they had 7-8 upgrades at other positions, they couldn't challenge for a title? He ain't the problem. Hell, with better players around, maybe he'd look even better!

 

Again, there is a lot of blame to go around before you get to Wes. He's outperformed his contract and expectations consistently at Juve. That's not saying he's All-World, either. But, the Juve supporters should be thankful that they have him.

 

Make a ranch dressing joke too! Maybe one of them will be funny eventually!

 

https://www.blackwhitereadallover.c...lletti-2025-serie-a-champions-league-analysis

 

I agree that Wes could play a role on a title contending team. Wes would have been invaluable on the Juventus teams that won 9 straight. I'm not even disagreeing that Wes could be a starter on a team that wins the Serie A. Wes isn't the issue at Juventus during his time at the club. I mean this with the most respect to Wes, but his level should be the floor of a title winning team.

As a thought experiment, I think Juventus could possibly still win the Serie A in 2011-2012 with Wes playing all of the minutes that Marchisio plays. This team would have been even better if Wes took the place of Giaccherini, Padoin, or Pazienza as the rotation piece for Vidal/Marchisio/Lichtsteiner/De Ceglie. The weak link in this team was De Ceglie and Matri/Vucinic.

---------------------------Buffon
------------Barzagli-Bonucci-Chiellini
Lichtsteiner-Vidal-Pirlo-McKennie-De Ceglie
-----------------------Matri-----Vucinic

FWIW, I don't think this team wins the scudetto in 2025-26.

 

I understand. My only point is that Juve fans don't really have much to mad at Wes about....

In fact, they should greatly appreciate him. If they are mad that he's not Vidal or Pirlo or Davids, that more their own issue, and that's probably the crux of the whole matter in the first place, I guess.

 

On the contrary, if you go back and read my posts, I’ve never blamed McKennie.

As a matter of fact, I always praised and lauded him.

I'm just reiterating the Italian publics and media’s perception of him.

That isn't coming from me but from them and it's a sad fact but I don’t think he merits any of the blame.

Here is his latest pagelle...

Bologna-Juventus 0-1, le pagelle: Cabal l'insospettabile, Openda entra bene. Heggem si rovina - TUTTO mercato WEB

McKennie 6 - Neanche lui saprebbe ormai dire quale sia il suo ruolo naturale. Adagiato sulla fascia destra, si muove un po' ovunque. E avrebbe propiziato lo 0-1 a fine primo tempo, ma partendo in fuorigioco. Meno protagonista nella ripresa.

McKennie 6 - Even he probably wouldn't be able to say what his natural role is anymore. Laid on the right wing, he moves a bit everywhere. He would have set up the 0-1 at the end of the first half, but he started in an offside position. He was even less of a key player in the second half.

Bologna Juventus, pagelle della partita di Serie A | Sky Sport

Weston McKennie

voto 6.5

 

I'm not aware of Juventini that are mad at Wes. Maybe there is a mis-understanding? We aren't mad at him, more that we are mad that the level of the team has dropped so much.

Majority of the anger is directed at the management for blowing the amount of money we have and mis-evaluating talent.

Edit. The places I think bring value to analysis. Not Juvnetuz.com

 

I've watched most of their games this year, and Locatelli is miles ahead of Cambiaso, who has been dreadful.

Interesting to me, it seems in the last few weeks a number of Juve players (Yildiz in particular) are looking to Weston first for distribution out of midfield. He hit a 70-yard diagonal to Openda, I think, yesterday that was unreal. Just over the defender and dropped onto Openda's foot, whose 1st touch, while not bad, played him into a defensible positon.

 

Not sure why people keep bringing up Wes's weight... It never affected his play negatively and he has always been at the top of the list for ground covered each game and often plays multiple full 90 games in a week. Clearly has always been one of the most in shape players on the team. Yes, he is thinner this year but again, his weight wasn't an actual issue. I guess Italians can't get past the aesthetics. Such a weird point to keep harping on. Now that he is thin Juve fans can makeup some other reason to be bothered by him despite him overwhelmingly being one of the most consistent and important players on the team.

 

He was overweight (and fighting a shoulder injury) at Copa America,and it did ettect his play.As this is an American centric board,that's where recent criticism comes from on here.

 

Wasn't it the English Leeds fans who were calling him a "fat bastard" when getting subbed off?

Leeds fans suffer colossal meltdown and turn on their own player with X-rated chant - Daily Star