Reports From England Suggest Roma Could Make a Run at Weston McKennie

Whether you're running the New York Yankees, Manchester United, or the New York Giants, a general manager's top priority is assembling a well-balanced, competitive, and cost-effective squad capable of competing at the highest level. While common sense may claim that you only need a certain number of players for each spot, certain positions defy conventional wisdom—there are always positions for which you can never have enough depth.

In baseball, it's the bullpen. With 162 games crammed into little more than five-and-a-half months, teams need those extra relief arms to survive the MLB marathon. The season is long, the summer is hot, and arms can be fickle, so stacking relievers is the ultimate CYA move for baseball GMs. In American football, teams horde the big bodies up front, guys that can either protect or pursue the quarterback. You'll often see teams add additional offensive linemen and EDGE players to combat both sides of this equation, even if they're seemingly set at the position.

In actual football, another marathon sport with little to no offseason, clubs tend to lay it on thick in the midfield. Whether it's the creative player pulling the strings behind the forwards, the bruiser in front of the defense, or the tireless box-to-box runner, football clubs gobble up midfielders like a squirrel preparing for winter.

This brings us to today's rumor. According to the English outlet Give Me Sport, Roma could make a play for Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie. The 24-year-old American is no stranger to Roma fans, having played three seasons with Juventus as a rotational player, but his search to find more playing time abroad hasn't exactly gone according to plan.

Sent on loan with Leeds this season, McKennie has barely seen the pitch, logging only 580 minutes in the Premiership. With a €35 million option on the table and the club in the thick of a relegation battle, McKeenie's future with Leeds is cloudy at best, prompting Give Me Sport to link McKennie with a return to Italy, possibly as a critical piece in Mourinho's midfield next season.

Given the American connections to Roma's ownership group, this rumor was bound to take hold. Still, with clubs as varied as Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund likely to enter the mix, Roma may have their work cut out for them.

Still, at only 24 years old and with a few years of calcio experience under his belt, McKennie would be an intriguing consolation prize should Roma miss out on Davide Frattesi.