Jhon Duran transfer: ‘Insulting’ admission made after West Ham bid
Andy Dunn has argued that West Ham making a £57million bid for Jhon Duran was not as insulting as it was made out to be.
The Hammers made two bids for the Aston Villa striker, which left the West Midlands club unhappy with the timing of the offer given it was just ahead of their Champions League game against Monaco.
Furthermore, according to The Sun (21 January), the Villians would want a fee of £100million for the 21-year-old which leaves the Irons’ bid well below the mark.
However, Dunn has defended West Ham’s lower offer as he wrote in the Sunday Mirror (26 January, page 63): “Jhon Duran has scored some brilliant goals and some important ones in his last two years at Aston Villa.
“But the Colombia striker is still not an automatic starter. In fact, of his 54 Premier League appearances, only seven were as a starter. Considering that statistic, his tally of 12 Premier League goals is not too bad.
“But those numbers do not add up to a £100million player. Which is why West Ham’s offer of £57m wasn’t as insulting as a lot of people made it out to be.”
West Ham miss out on Jhon Duran signing
You can understand what Dunn is saying as Duran hasn’t been a regular starter tearing up the Premier League each week and instead, has had to share his game time with Ollie Watkins at Villa this term.
That being said, with the years of experience between the two Villa strikers, it’s not surprising that Unai Emery is keen on keeping both of them at the club as he has the perfect succession plan in place.
It’s a difficult one because if he was a regular starter, the 21-year-old’s worth would not be questioned but his lack of starts is also not a reflection of his own talent either.
Nevertheless, it seemed highly unlikely that his current club were ever going to let the striker go for a small fee as it would be damaging to their own prospects and West Ham need to put their focus on to an achievable transfer target.
In other West Ham news, Fabrizio Romano has dropped an exciting update on the Irons’ chase for another striker.
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