I just really get a sense now that Chelsea are going to end up signing Jhon Duran as their new striker this summer, and it’s really aggravating me.
The reports circulating from both David Ornstein of The Athletic and Jacob Steinburg of The Guardian suggest Aston Villa are in talks to sign Conor Gallagher this summer. Duran was mentioned in both of their reports, with Steinburg even suggesting a swap deal could happen.
PLEASE! Stop this. The fact we went in for him in January as well really puts fear in me and makes me think we could well just end up signing Duran.
Obviously I am going to just wait and see what happens and who we sign before I really go in here, but the fact that Duran is still being mentioned with us and we are clearly still considering him is really grinding my gears.
Don’t get me wrong, if Duran came to Chelsea I’d back and support him and give him some time to begin with, as I do with any new signing. The minute you wear that shirt I’ll be behind you. But I’ll also just call it as I see it and if I don’t rate you, I’m never going to hide those feelings. But from the off, I’d back any new signing coming in whether I agree with it or not.
However, signing Duran would be MASSIVELY overwhelming and I urge Chelsea to steer clear. What are we doing here? We need a PROVEN striker to come in, not another massive risk in a player who may or may not come good – we have too many of them already.
I’m not doubting that Duran has ability and promise, but this is NOT the position we need to be adding that kind of player in thank you very much. He is RAW. We need a player who is at least a little more proven.
Why would we be adding another young and raw striker alongside Nicolas Jackson, who is also still clearly young and raw? That just makes zero sense.
Duran is just 20 and in his entire senior career since 2019 and in 130 appearances in all competitions, he has scored just 26 goals. For Aston Villa, he has scored just 8 goals in 49 appearances in all comps. That’s FAR from good enough for the profile of striker we need to add.
We should be looking for GOALSCORERS, not potentially good strikers who could soon become goalscorers one day. That is not where we should be at as a club right now.
I understand and see the vision by recruiting young. But once again if we do end up signing Duran, we are missing THE most important thing in building a team – BALANCE. I’ll bang this drum until they see it and correct it.
Anyway, this is meant to be me not going in on just a rumour alone so I’ll stop now. But I just for some reason really have a sense this could end up happening. I truly hope my feeling is wrong and Chelsea see sense.
We know they are speaking with Benjamin Sesko’s reps and have other options for striker on the shortlist, so my hope is with those facts right now.
I respect Duran, and I see potential. But the risk we would take would be way too huge if we sign him as our new number 9 this summer. Nobody can convince me otherwise.
