‘I’ll kill you’: Leeds ace says Everton star tried to threaten him on the pitch this season

By Charles Jones

Speaking on the Indirect Podcast, Weston McKennie has been discussing some of the mind games he plays with other players and how he can get into certain players’ heads.

The American says that he’ll happily get involved in mind games with opposition players, earmarking Abdoulaye Doucoure as one player he really had a back and forth with at one point this season.

Indeed, McKennie says that he and Doucoure had a real squabble on the pitch, ending with Doucoure threatening to hurt McKennie the next time he got the ball.

Ultimately, the threat from Doucoure didn’t lead anywhere, with McKennie claiming he bodied the Everton man the next time they came together on the pitch.

Doucoure tried to intimidate McKennie

The American shared details of this conversations he had.

“Doucoure, me and him were going back and forth. When the fight broke out on the side I was shoving someone, for Tyler’s sake, and he came over and wrapped his whole body around me and pulled me. I walked away and got the yellow card and I said to him ‘I don’t care if you do that, but do it when I look at you’. And he goes like ‘You know, when you get the ball next time, I’ll kill you.’ And I said to him that when you get the ball I’ll kill you too. I was so happy because not long after that we had a 50/50 shoulder-to-shoulder and I bodied him off the ball,” McKennie said.

Intense

Professional football can be such an intense environment, and letting someone get into your head like this is never a good thing.

McKennie seemingly really riled Doucoure up, and that easily could have thrown him off his game.

Of course, as it happened, Everton would beat Leeds 1-0 that day, but on another day McKennie’s mind games could’ve been the difference between a win and a loss for the Whites.

Winding opposition players up is certainly a part of the dark arts of football, and McKennie is a master.