Aston Villa have reportedly reached an agreement with Chelsea over the transfer of Jhon Duran, in a deal worth close to €50m.
Duran, 20, scored eight goals in 37 appearances last season, as he played a key role as cover behind Ollie Watkins up front to give Unai Emery an option to rotate and add a different dynamic in the final third when needed.
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With our lack of alternative competition and depth in that department, the Colombian international seemingly has an important part to play moving forward, but Villa could be planning a reshuffle ahead of next season.
According to Colombian journalist Guillermo Arango, an agreement has been reached between Villa and Chelsea for the signing of Duran, and he suggests that the transfer could be worth in the region of €50m.
It’s added that talks over personal terms are now ongoing, and so it remains to be seen if there is significant progress in the coming days to seal another high-profile and big-money exit from the club.
This latest development comes amid intense speculation that Douglas Luiz is set to move to Juventus, and so our well-documented PSR concerns are seemingly ensuring that we do sell key players this month in order to balance our books, and hopefully put ourselves in a strong position to significantly strengthen the squad from July onwards.
While there is no doubting Duran’s potential and talent, there have been ongoing question marks raised over his temperament and character given public comments made by Emery and John McGinn last season, while the young striker’s social media activity also gained unnecessary attention previously.
Emery has reiterated consistently that Duran is a work in progress and that he believes in his ability, but based on the report above, which builds on the latest from the Telegraph who have noted that Chelsea are stepping up their interest once again, perhaps the Villa boss is content with approving a departure, and bringing in an option of his own that is better suited to what he’s implementing with this squad.
Cameron Archer is set to return from Sheffield Utd this summer following their relegation as per the terms of his transfer last year, but time will tell who we have in terms of firepower to support Watkins next season, as we’ll certainly need depth to compete across multiple fronts.