Alasdair Gold has revealed that Fabio Paratici was more interested in bringing Weston McKennie to Tottenham in January than Rodrigo Bentancur.
Paratici raided his former club for Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski in January and both players hit the ground running in North London, playing a crucial part in helping the Lilywhites to qualify for the Champions League.
Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Giovanni Albanese claimed last month that Spurs could look to raid Juve for McKennie this summer.
CalcioMercato subsequently reported that the 23-year-old is one of the players who is expected to leave Turin this summer in order to make way for Paul Pogba, who the Bianconeri are said to be keen on signing.
The report added that Paratici ‘particularly likes’ the USA international and is keen on reuniting with him at Spurs.
This has now been backed up by Gold, who stated that the Spurs managing director of football prioritised a deal for McKennie over Bentancur.
The journalist said on his YouTube Channel: “I do think Spurs will seriously look at Weston McKennie this summer. If you haven’t heard me say it before, Paratici spoke to his representatives in January about a potential move.
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“Paratici adores McKennie. He brought him to Juventus. From what I understand, he was actually above Bentancur on his January wishlist for a central midfielder.”
Spurs Web Opinion
While Bentancur is more of a holding/box-to-box midfielder, McKennie is more of a number eight. So, Paratici’s interest in the American was probably independent of his pursuit of the Uruguayan.
There is no question that Spurs need an attacking midfielder this summer, with Lo Celso and Ndombele seemingly on their way out. I expect the club to go after McKennie if they are not able to get Eriksen.
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