Aston Villa continue to impress this season.
Last weekend’s 2-1 victory over Leicester City means Unai Emery’s team are now unbeaten in 13 Premier League or Champions League home games, winning eight of them, most notably defeating Bayern Munich and Manchester City in front of their own supporters.
This leaves the Claret and Blue Army eighth in the league, thereby occupying the last potential European position, also fifth in the gigantic Champions League standings, on course to go straight through to the round of 16, with games against Monaco and Celtic still to come later this month.
One Villa player in particular has caught the eye this season so far, with some of Europe’s leading clubs casting admiring glances.
Aston Villa's main man in demand
According to RMC Sport on Twitter, Ligue 1 champions and Champions League giants Paris Saint-Germain have made contact over the possibility of signing striker Jhon Durán.
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As per talkSPORT, the Colombian is valued at £60m, while Jacob Steinberg in the Guardian has also documented Chelsea’s long-standing interest.
Having lost Kylian Mbappé last summer, PSG are certainly in the market for the striker, with Randal Kolo Muani having been “discarded” by manager Luis Enrique, so could Durán be les Rouge-et-Bleu’s man?
Graham Ruthven of Total Soccer Show predicts that Durán is going “get a big transfer in 2025”, adding that Villa would be able to justify this given that they already have Ollie Watkins and, as noted by Adrian Clarke, Emery is struggling to get both of them into the same team.
Aston Villa's Jack Grealish repeat
Durán is currently suspended, following his red card at Newcastle on Boxing Day, but will serve the last of his three-match ban against West Ham in the FA Cup on Friday night, so it’ll be interesting to see if he returns in place of Watkins when Villa visit Everton on Wednesday.
It is quite the dilemma Emery is faced with, so let’s see how his two centre-forwards compare.
Statistics
Jhon Durán
Ollie Watkins
Appearances
26
29
Starts
7
22
Minutes
989
1,835
Goals
12
9
Goals – xG
+4.4
-3.6
Shots on target %
47.2%
39.3%
Assists
0
7
Shot-creating actions
20
51
Touches
324
467
Of course, Durán’s pure goal-scoring numbers are very impressive, scoring more goals than Watkins in little over half the number of minutes, while his goals – xG figure of +4.4 is very impressive, currently ranked eighth in the Premier League for this metric, while Watkins, in stark contrast, is sixth-bottom for the same statistic.
However, the Englishman’s tally of seven assists, to the Colombian’s zero, as well as Watkins’ greater number of shot-creating actions and touches suggests he is a superior all-round striker.
Losing Duran could then evoke memories of one of Aston Villa’s last big-money, high-profile sales, which saw Jack Grealish move to Manchester City for a then British record £100m.
At the time, it was viewed as an impossible task to replace Grealish, with Richard Jolly of FourFourTwo claiming they “squandered” the money on “failed” signings Leon Bailey, Emi Buendía and Danny Ings.
Nevertheless, since then, Villa have finished seventh, reached the UEFA Conference League semi-finals and got back into the Champions League for the first time in over four decades, so they haven’t done too badly.
Thus, of course, supporters will not want to see Durán go, but his departure may be necessary if they’re to avoid breaching Profit and Sustainability rules and, with Emery in charge, Villa have proven themselves capable of thriving, even in the face of losing star players.
For that reason, losing the former Chicago Fire striker may not actually prove the end of the road for the Emery revolution. Having arguably thrived since Grealish’s departure, Villa could well reinvest in similar fashion if Duran is to follow suit.
Like Grealish – who has now gone over a year without scoring for Man City – Villa’s number nine could find that the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere.
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