Just two summers ago, the now infamous botched transfer saga involving Tim Steidten, David Sullivan and one of the world’s hottest young talents managed to drive West Ham fans into a frenzy over the ineptitude displayed by the pair.
Whoever was to blame, (we all have our theories), derision was the result from supporters after the club failed to land the star who’d even announced his own impending transfer on social media.
The Jhon Duran saga ran for several months and involved West Ham almost – but not quite – landing the striker who of course then went on to score against them, leading to another failed bid in the winter ,’allegedly’, – and Tim Steidten’s turning to a crocked Niclas Fullkrug instead, out of sheer desperation to maintain his own credibility and land a striker.
Duran’s now infamous crossed Hammers pose whilst still an Aston Villa player
However, according to new revelations by Duran’s Fenerbahce team mate Fred, West Ham seem to have dodged a massive bullet by not signing Duran: The player swapped Aston Villa for Saudia Arabia, Fenerbahce and then Zenit on loan in quick succession, refusing to settle or knuckle down and displaying a terribly disruptive attitude to training as Fred revealed to LeMarca Sports:
“Jhon Durán didn’t give a f*** about anything. ‘Come on Durán, let’s train, let’s run a bit over there,’ I’d say.
‘Bro, I’m already rich. I don’t need to run,’ he’d say, then he’d go to the medical department and slack off.
When he went to Zenit, I said, ‘Ooo, now you’re gonna make even more money.’
‘Bro, the more the better, the more the better,’ he’d say. Sometimes when we talked, he’d say, ‘I’ve already saved the lives of me, my family, and three generations…’
At Fenerbahçe, at least in the beginning he was showing up for training and stuff, then he completely quit…”
Easy in hindsight, isn’t it.. but perhaps Steidten and Sullivan dropping the ball between them over Jhon Duran’s transfer was not the disaster it seemed at the time. And Unai Emery did exactly the right thing in flogging his disruptive talent off to the highest bidder whilst his stock was at it highest point.
When you understand how poor his family were in Zaragoza (a mining town) and thereafter in a barrio in Medellin his apparent inability to manage money and fame is hardly surprising, something I mentioned when we were trying to sign him. He had always been considered difficult to handle and more money only fueled that. Some manage the transition well. We were on a flight coming back from Europe and my wife was talking to Luis Diaz and his wife and he seemed a really grounded family man. Diaz came from severe poverty as well. Some make the transition and some don’t