Football
Chelsea may have found their cannonballer! Surprise name could be moving to London
Chelsea have been linked with the Colombian winger, who plays for Aston Villa, in recent weeks. Jhon Durán is open to a move to the blue side of London. Will it be more money wasted under American owner Todd Boehly?
Chelsea have been linked with the Colombian winger, who plays for Aston Villa, in recent weeks. Jhon Durán is open to a move to the blue side of London. Will it be more money wasted under American owner Todd Boehly?
Chelsea and the transfer window has equated to a lot of money being spent on young promising players in recent years. So it wasn’t a big surprise to Chelsea fans in London when speculation started about the 20-year-old striker. Durán scored just 5 league goals in the 2023/24 season.
Aston Villa’s substitute striker
The player who joined Aston Villa from American team Chicago Fire only two years ago for 16 million euros has never been a main striker and has started most of the games from the bench, and when he has started in the starting eleven it has mostly been against inferior teams or in domestic cups.
Durán competed with English striker Ollie Watkins, who scored 19 goals and 13 assists in the last Premier League season, a total of 32 points, the most of any player in the league. Jhon has come off the bench 20 times in league games. Most of the time, he jumped in for the final 15-20 minutes. He only managed to make the starting 11 three times in the league.
According to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Aston Villa value Duran at €35-40 million, which will be no problem for Chelsea to pay. The Colombian has not resisted a move to Stamford Bridge since January, when the Blues first showed interest.
Who will not strengthen the Blues?
Benjamin Šeško, who has been linked with the Blues and also Arsenal, has finally signed a new contract until 2029. Julián Alvarez, has indicated that it is possible that he could leave league winners Manchester City.
His main destination, however, would be Real Madrid. Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen, who has let Napoli know that if an offer came from Chelsea, he would want to leave, according to Italian media. But Chelsea say he is too expensive, so some other negotiations have not happened.
The curse of the Blues’ top strikers
The spike strikers have not been doing well at Chelsea in recent years. There have been several instances of it not working out over the last few years: Alvaro Morata, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, even Romelu Lukaku’s return didn’t work out and Aubameyang moving away after a season at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea in the last summer, however, may have finally found a striker capable of scoring goals in a blue jersey. Nicolas Jackson surprised in his first season in the Isles.
At just 22 years old, he scored 17 goals and assisted 6. But unfortunately for him, he has been throwing away big scoring chances quite often, and that may be leading the Chelsea management to bring in reinforcements just for the spearhead striker position.
Source: Transfermarkt, X, Sky Sports