Breaking News – West Ham have submitted more than one bid to their major Premier League rivals for an exciting 20 year old centre forward, we can reveal. We have known the Hammers have been investigating the striker market close to home, across Europe and in South America, and at C and H we have been suggesting for many days that we felt that we’d be in the market seeking a Premier League – level young striker prospect, rather than simply relying on the loan and free markets.
This would certainly fit the Steiden / Lopetegui recruitment plan, bringing in young talent and bringing down the average age of the squad: According to top source Fabrizio Romano on his twitter / X feed just now, negotiations with Aston Villa are at quite an advanced stage:
More than one bid has already been made for Jhon Duran – a young Premier League centre forward mentioned by C and H as one of our ‘whispers’ from last week. Apparently personal terms have already been agreed with the player which sounds as if he is keen on a move to London Stadium.
The deal currently being discussed is in the region of £35 million plus a 10% sell-on clause for the 1 .85 metre centre forward who has made one brief appearance in the Colombian national team at Copa America. He joined Aston Villa for £16.64 million in the 22/23 campaign but is not considered part of Unai Emery’s plans. He certainly fits the bill – young, mobile and athletic: We will watch for news on the progress of developments.
With negotiations apparently well advanced, this would go some way to explaining why we have not bid for some of the ‘usual suspects’ in this window – such as En- Nesyri who seems to be available to us every six months.
Jhon Duran would be a major upgrade on our striker options – currently of course revolving principally around an ageing Mikey Antonio – and could bring quality firepower to our front line in time for the start of the season.
Excited yet?
Nice profit for selling club.
How different from whu who so often lose money when they move players on..
Or even worse getting nothing for their potential academy players.
Unproven,but has premier league experience,which was a lot more than haller and scammacca had when they arrived,at least moyes is no longer here cos moyesasaurus,would stick him in to the u21 for a season or to then flig him for next t nothing £35+ million is lot of dollar but we shall see,COYI’S 😉
It’s absolutely crazy but that is how the transfer market is going. No players are the money that’s been spent to get them. Hopefully J Lo can do something with him and turn him into a good player for the Hammers. After all, that’s what coaches are for, isn’t it? To improve players?
Are we overpaying for these young players like Guilherme and Duran? As long as they go up in value in future but does feel a bit of a gamble. My main concern about buying these youngsters from elsewhere is i don’t want it to prevent our own academy youngsters like Callum Marshall from breaking through.
Feckin’ hell. what about our own home-grown young strikers with as much experience as this overseas rip off?
Unf**ingbelieveable b*******
Oh, I know ‘Champions League Villa, so he has to be good, despite the fact they’ve been relegated, bottom-dwellers and our club surrendered everything we’d achieved ( edited MT) We have really dropped the ball.
A bit of a trend of negativity here? At least ‘Deathblow’ as a moniker gives us a bit of a warning of what’s coming
it’s the only attitude he has. i skip his cmments every time. broken record
Totally agree.3 start last season, £30million+. Haven’t we got a promising youngster who could do a job and save us all that money. I think it could be spent on better players
Said it many times, but I divide minutes played by 100 .. To my mind, he scored 5 PL goals in equiv. 4.5 PL games .. Very impressive for a 20YO ..
We did have but he’s gone on a free transfer_Mubama.
A lot of speculation over his potential.
Although we were short on subs bench Moyes didn’t give him enough time (last 5-10 mins).
Would have liked him to stay and see what JLo might have been able to do.
Hopefully at end of next season we won’t be saying he could have saved us £35m.
I agree. Pity we let Divin Mubama go. He is a hot talent and we already had him. Daft.
Villa are in the Champions league and don’t want to keep him for a squad player, that tells you everything.
He is trash that’s why Villa want to move him on, just like they offloaded Ings to us. No other club will come in for him or pay so much.
Always one *****(
I seem to remember watching Villa in pre-season tournament in USA last summer and he was very impressive, lot’s of energy and great movement. He knows where the goal is as well, young and intimidating and having premiership experience is a bonus, I genuinely think he’ll do brilliantly with the players he has around him. Hope they pull it off but it’s a great deal of money.
He’s a powerful and confident striker who will only improve if he plays regularly! Yes it is a gamble but at least he’s young hungry and wants to join us! I personally think he will do well in our new more attacking set up! COYI
100% agree. MT
Wow lot of cash , not proven , do you think he’s worth that much , Martin
Hi Mark.. ‘Worth’ is relative and only relevant to the seller and the buyer- Compared with some of the 30-year-old-plus ‘names’ mentioned in the last few weeks he has a lot of the attributes you’d hope for. Steiden knows far better than me so I’d go with his judgement always!