Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie was absent from Luciano Spalletti's squad for the Bianconeri's 2-0 pre-season friendly victory against Nizza on August 1, one of several first-team regulars not called up for the match. The American was among a group that also included Marcus Thuram, Jonathan David, and Kenan Yildiz — a cluster of absences that signals Spalletti is managing his senior players' pre-season loads carefully as the 2025-26 campaign approaches.
The timing matters. McKennie enters this summer at 27, coming off a season in which he made 35 Serie A appearances, contributing five goals and five assists for an average match rating of 6.90. That is a profile of consistent, if not spectacular, contribution — the kind of midfielder who accumulates value across a full campaign rather than in concentrated bursts. His AI overall rating of 69 out of a possible 100 suggests a player operating near his ceiling, with room to grow but not a wide gap to close.
Spalletti's public assessment of the club he now manages adds a layer of context. The Juventus head coach acknowledged that the club had made poor signings in recent years — a candid admission that frames the current squad-building exercise as corrective rather than additive. In that environment, McKennie's status is worth watching. He is not a marquee name in the transfer market conversation swirling around the club this summer, but he is also not surplus to requirements. His absence from the Nizza friendly appears to be a scheduling decision rather than a statement.
The broader picture at Juventus is one of flux. The club is navigating goalkeeper recruitment on a restricted budget, and Federico Gatti has been linked with a loan move to Napoli. These are the structural conversations that define a sixth-place club — 68 points from 37 matches across a season of 19 wins, 11 draws, and 7 defeats — attempting to close the gap on the top four.
For McKennie, the pre-season is a window to establish himself within Spalletti's system before competitive football resumes. Five goals and five assists across 35 appearances is a reasonable baseline; the question is whether he can push that output higher in a setup that may demand more from its central midfielders in both phases. His involvement in the coming weeks of pre-season will be the first real indicator of where he stands in Spalletti's hierarchy.
A player who has spent years proving his durability in Serie A, McKennie now needs to show he is not just a reliable option but a necessary one.