Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran has been heavily linked with a move to West Ham United over the past few weeks or so.
It was only last week when West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui was prioritising a move to sign Jhon Duran, but Villa were making it incredibly hard to get a deal done for the South American attacker with their extortionate demands.
And as a result, West Ham switched attention to Niclas Fullkrug, and the German completed his move to the London Stadium yesterday.
The thing is, the Hammers are still short in the centre-forward department, as Danny Ings and Michail Antonio quite simply cannot be relied upon.
And it was even suggested that Duran could still be on the West Ham radar, in spite of the Fullkrug deal now being completed.
Florian Plettenberg claimed that Villa could actually now sell the striker for a discounted fee – just £25 million.
It has also been claimed that West Ham are willing to pay £30 million for the Aston Villa attacker.
It had actually been reported that we’d even agreed personal terms with the Colombia international, so could the transfer still happen?
Jeff Stelling makes big Jhon Duran to West Ham claim
I’m over the moon with the Fullkrug signing.
He is a proven German international striker, and he should actually be the perfect forward for Lopetegui’s system.
However, in an ideal world, the Hammers head coach would sign a talented young centre-forward as well, in the hope that he could learn from the 31-year-old.
And it seems like that is still very much a possibility…
Jeff Stelling was speaking live on talkSPORT (6 August 6th, 7:38 am) about West Ham’s summer business.
And he made a big claim about Villa hitman Duran, and his potential move to East London.
He explained, “As well as Fullkrug, they’ve signed Max Kilman and Crysencio Summerville – £110million so far this window, second only to Aston Villa, and they might not be done yet because I understand they’re still interested in Jhon Duran as well. That’s despite signing Fullkrug.”
If the Hammers manage to bring in the Colombian for around £25 million, or even £30 million, I think it would be good business for us.
Who knows, we might even be able to secure a loan deal for him with an option to buy next summer.
Jhon Duran possesses explosive pace and has all of the attributes needed to succeed with West Ham in the Premier League.
I truly believe that he’s a star of the future, and having him to call upon as well as Fullkrug would be huge for the Hammers this season.
Judging by Jeff Stelling’s latest claim, our hopes of doing exactly that are far from over.
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