Chelsea in contact with agents of £85m attacker ahead of second summer push

Chelsea are in contact with the agent of in-demand striker Jhon Duran, our writer Simon Phillips has confirmed on his Substack today.

The Aston Villa forward was the subject of serious interest from the Blues over the summer, but stayed put. Since then he’s continued to impress as an incredible super sub and alternative to Ollie Watkins, and the pressure on Unai Emery’s side to sell has only grown.

Duran was ultimately content to sit tight for another year, but the temptation to leave will only grow as he fails to establish himself as a regular for Villa. Chelsea meanwhile have had another 6 month spell of wishing they themselves had a Duran type on the bench to come into the team and take the burden off Nicolas Jackson.

Chelsea fans dreaming of deadly Duran in Blue

Phillips writes that Duran is still on our “radar” and in fact has seen his agent receive contact from figures at Chelsea.

Other sources are claiming that Villa want £85m for the red hot striker and won’t sell him for less. After recently persuading him to extend his contract, they clearly intend to keep him around for the rest of this season at the very least, as they push to do well both in Europe and domestically.

With 7 league goals and 3 Champions League goals despite a real lack of starts, Duran has continued to show what he can do, and clearly still has fans wondering what he could do in a Blue shirt. While Jackson offers so much but sometimes doesn’t deliver in front of goal, Duran’s insane stats show he’s one of the biggest overperformers of the chances he gets in football right now.

The Colombian would surely fancy his chances of playing even more at Chelsea than he does at Villa.