Chelsea spent a lot of this summer pursuing various striker transfer targets, and ended up pretty much empty handed.
Young Marc Guiu came in, but none of the bids for serious established players amounted to anything – despite some pretty intense interest in players like Jhon Duran.
Chelsea got close to signing the Aston Villa striker but nothing came of it. In the end, they backed off and Duran accepted he was going to have to be Ollie Watkins’ backup for another year. With Villa in the Champions League, that’s not a terrible spot to be in.
But according to CaughtOffside, the Colombian’s bright start to the season, combined with the impact he made last year as a super sub, means that Villa are now considering him untouchable. While they were willing to entertain our advances in the summer because we were ready to offer a lot of money for a player they didn’t always use, they’re now sure they really like him and want to keep him.
Where Chelsea go next
Luckily for Chelsea, Nicolas Jackson has also started the season well, so they’re not already regretting not putting a bigger package on the table for Duran. It seems like his star is going to continue to rise however, and there will surely be some disappointment from our sporting directors that their talent spotting didn’t lead to anything in this case.
There will be other options, and who knows, maybe Guiu or Deivid Washington will start to shine. At the moment, even they’re not getting a look in because Christopher Nkunku is leading the line in the B team games. An injury to Jackson could change everything, but for now Chelsea are in quite a nice spot in terms of their attacking options, and there won’t be too many regrets about Duran just yet.