‘I can’t do that’: £30m player says he failed at Leeds United because he just wasn’t fit enough - TBR Football 14/9/23
Charles Jones
Weston McKennie may go down as one of Leeds United’s worst
signings in modern history.
Signed on loan with a £30m option to buy in January to help
save the club from relegation, but, ultimately, he was unable to help the
Whites move up the table.
The American put in a string of poor performances, and, in
all honesty, he really didn’t look up to the task of playing in the Premier
League.
McKennie has been very open about the fact he wasn’t good
enough at Leeds, speaking on The American Dream podcast, he says that he’s not
going to make excuses for his performances for the Whites, claiming that, at
the time, he, quite simply, wasn’t fit enough to perform.
“I’m not one to make excuses at all, but I don’t think my
physical fitness was the best because I was so used to being at Juventus and
playing every three days. Game fitness is so different to training fitness for
me. I become game fit by playing games, and you can’t replicate that in
training, you can try, but I can’t do that. Playing one game a week, I didn’t
feel I was in the best shape in terms of being able to last a 90-minute game,”
McKennie said.
As a professional footballer, there’s no excuse for a lack
of fitness.
As McKennie says, game fitness is different to training
fitness, but there are ways to get around that.
The bottom line is that fitness is about science rather than
mentality, and if you work hard enough, you will be fit enough.
Leeds were once the fittest team in the Premier League while
only playing one game a week under Marcelo Bielsa, so we’re not buying this
excuse from McKennie, not one bit.
