There is a bitter irony for West Ham as a journalist shares what’s stopping a loan move for Aston Villa star Jhon Duran.
West Ham completed their eighth signing of the summer with the arrival of Aaron Wan-Bissaka this week.
But Hammers News has confirmed the club are not necessarily done there and still want to try and do a deal with Aston Villa.
West Ham and Aston Villa face one another in the opening game of the Premier League season this Saturday.
A couple of sub-plots have been added to the clash.
New West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui will face his Basque compatriot Unai Emery.
And the Hammers have been locked in on-off negotiations with Villa over the signing of striker Jhon Duran for the last month or so.
Hammers News exclusively revealed West Ham would refuse to meet Villa’s £35m asking price for Duran all the way back on July 13th.
Conspiracy theories did the rounds that a move for Niclas Fullkrug as an alternative was nothing more than a ruse to force Aston Villa’s hand over the 20-year-old Colombian forward.
Subplots to West Ham and Villa opener
But the game of cat and mouse with Villa ended with West Ham signing 31-year-old Fullkrug from Dortmund.
The contrasting profiles of Aston Villa’s wantaway Duran and soon-to-be 32-year-old Fullkrug were not lost on many West Ham supporters.
Duran being a young, pacy, fiery but somewhat raw striker who is relatively unproven at the top level.
And Fullkrug, 11 years his senior with a vast wealth of experience at the top level but a lot less pace – by his own admission – and the sun setting rather than rising on his career in the coming seasons.
For that reason, speculation that West Ham could end up signing both Duran and Fullkrug is not going away.
Top sources inside the club have confirmed West Ham could yet make as many as three more signings – if at least three players can be moved on.
And the Irons are keen to try and bring in a younger forward with pace to help share the load with Fullkrug.
West Ham want loan move for Villa star Duran
Links to Duran have gone a touch quiet in the last week.
But there’s a major twist as a journalist shares what’s stopping a West Ham loan move for Aston Villa star Duran.
Graeme Bailey has exclusively told Hammers News that West Ham do still want to sign Duran on loan with an option or obligation to buy.
But there is a bitter irony when it comes to the reason why West Ham cannot currently seal the deal.
Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal, James Ward-Prowse, Michail Antonio, Danny Ings, Maxwel Cornet, Nayef Aguerd and Konstantinos Mavropanos have all been linked with potential moves away from West Ham.
The club need to offload three of those – in addition to hopefully pushing through Kurt Zouma’s exit – in order to consider any further new signings before the window closes.
Journalist shares what’s stopping Hammers doing deal with Villa
But Bailey has revealed Danny Ings’ refusal to leave West Ham is currently spoiling any chance the club has of bringing in Aston Villa’s Duran in on loan.
“I’m told West Ham want another striker on loan and they would love it to be Duran,” Bailey told Hammers News.
“But one major problem is Ings, who just won’t leave!”
You could not make up the irony of this situation.
West Ham signed an already ageing Ings for £15m from Villa in January 2023.
Aston Villa replaced Ings with – you guessed it – Duran in a deal for similar money from Chicago Fire.
Neither has played anything like as much as they would have liked in their respective claret and blue shirts.
But now West Ham are being prevented from signing another striker from Villa by the one that joined them from the same club 18 months ago.
Duran has already made it clear he’d be up for joining West Ham.
So now it’s down to whether Ings can be persuaded to join one of the clubs reportedly interested in him – such as former side Southampton.
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