Aston Villa forward Jhon Duran is reportedly being targeted by Chelsea again as he could be set to leave this summer.
The 20-year-old arrived from Chicago Fire in January 2023, and he has since gone on to score eight goals in 49 appearances for the club.
READ MORE: Final agreement close as Villa look set to make key decision
With nine caps for Colombia, it’s clear that there is a real talent there with a potentially bright future ahead of him for club and country, and ideally, we’d see him develop and improve under Unai Emery in the coming years to establish himself as a fundamental option for the Villa boss.
However, after speculation over his future with us has refused to go away since January, The Telegraph report that Chelsea are once again expected to step up their interest in Duran, who is moving up the pecking order of their list of transfer targets to bolster their attacking options.
It’s suggested that an exit for the Colombian international could aid our bid to try and sign Conor Gallagher, but amid intense talk over an exit for Douglas Luiz in the coming days, we have PSR concerns this month that need to be addressed.
The Guardian add that Villa are likely to demand £40m for Duran but are open to selling, while he could be used in a swap deal for Gallagher who is believed to be valued at £50m. Time will tell if the pieces fall into place for the two clubs, and players, to reach respective agreements, to make a player exchange deal a real possibility.
It’s ultimately a key period for Villa between now and the end of June, as all signs point towards having to sell players in order to remove those PSR concerns from the equation and give ourselves more financial strength and flexibility moving forward to continue to strengthen the squad with Emery’s preferred signings before the end of the transfer window.
While Duran has a key role to play moving forward given that he offers a crucially different dynamic up front given his physical attributes as well as the fact that we lack alternative options up top behind Ollie Watkins, there is a sense that he isn’t indispensable and is certainly a valuable asset.
In turn, it remains to be seen if Emery, Monchi and the rest of the Villa hierarchy believe that we can afford to let him go if the benefits outweigh the negatives, but it seems that Chelsea may well knock on the door and ask the question in the coming weeks, and time will tell if the Villa boss is open to giving an exit the green light over other possible options.