Chelsea agree Jhon Duran terms with Villa – but won’t make move until another option is explored | OneFootball

Chelsea’s chase for a striker to back up Nicolas Jackson was never going to be easy. Forwards are always in demand, and it’s especially hard to find one good enough to pay good money for who is also willing to accept a “backup” or “rotation” role.

Their best chance is perhaps to find a player who is already in that position – and that’s perhaps why Ollie Watkins’s backup at Aston Villa, Jhon Duran, is top of the pile right now.

Fraser Gillan of TeamTalk dropped an exclusive earlier today which claimed that Chelsea “understand the terms” to buy Duran after their talks with Aston Villa this week. It’s up to them whether they meet Villa’s terms or not.

While Duran is “waiting and keen on a move,” Chelsea “have eyes on another forward,” and presumably want to sound them out before committing a reported £40m (or thereabouts) to land Duran.

Chelsea and Villa on the same page after long talks

What we can conclude from this situation is that Chelsea know exactly what they need to do to sign Duran after extensive talks with Aston Villa in the past week.

Villa don’t want to sell, but they know they need to bring money in

That allows them to set a pretty concrete price for Chelsea, and now the Blues know where they stand. Presumably they know spend some time exploring this mystery “other” option” and see what the final cost of that might be.

With both options scoped out, they can weigh up the risk and reward each way.

We’re not sure who this player might be – Lois Openda and Dominic Solanke are two names who have come up this week, but each feels too expensive to be a realistic target if we’re truly looking for a backup to Jackson.