CONFIRMED: Chelsea in €100m Jhon Duran talks as Emery drops transfer hint
Chelsea have opened transfer negotiations with Aston Villa over a deal for Colombia international striker Jhon Duran.
Duran has caught the eye while playing for Villa this season, scoring 12 goals in 28 games for the Birmingham club. The striker has struggled to start games ahead of Ollie Watkins, though, and was again on the bench as Unai Emery’s side lost 1-0 to Monaco in the Champions League on Tuesday.
With Chelsea in need of reinforcement in attack, where Nicolas Jackson is their only genuine No.9, they are revisiting a deal they tried to get over the line in the summer.
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Enzo Maresca’s side have been in talks with the agent of Duran in recent days, according to Si Phillips.
It appears that Chelsea have been hurried into action following the increased interest of West Ham in the 21-year-old attacker. The Hammers have already had two bids knocked back by the Villans, who have put a price tag just short of €100 million on Duran.
Current ETV
Jhon Durán
F (C)
Aston Villa
Jhon Durán
F (C)
Aston Villa
ETV Range
€27.5M – €45.8M
Emery’s Duran admission
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery effectively admitted after the Monaco defeat that he does not need both Watkins and Duran, with the pair proving incompatible in attack against the Ligue 1 side.
Indeed, it was the arrival of the Colombia star off the bench that saw the Premier League side lose their grip on the game.
“The last 20 or 25 minutes, when we played with two strikers, we lost our positioning. This is the first part of my summary. Then it is about building a team in the mentality I want. It is my challenge because both are very good players but today it didn’t work well,” Emery admitted.
He previously said that starting Watkins and Duran together promises to be complicated.
“We have to work on it tactically because to play with two strikers, properly two strikers, they are not with the same task, because they have to try to help the team as well in our structure offensively and defensively. I tried it before and sometimes it was successful,” the former Arsenal manager told the media prior to the Champions League game.
In an ideal world, the Aston Villa boss would like both players in his ranks, yet the reality is that the current situation is unlikely to be sustainable for too long given the form of the strikers and if they are unable to play together it may well be that something must give.
