West Ham United have been chasing the signature of Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran since the summer.
Jhon Duran could, and should, be a West Ham player now, there are no two ways about that.
It seemed for all the world that the Villa hitman was set to join the Hammers six months ago, especially after he did the ‘crossed hammers’ sign during a live stream.
Missing out on Duran in the summer really hurt.
However, West Ham were said to have made a whopping £57 million bid for the 21-year-old striker just a few days ago.
That really piqued the interest of the Hammers fans. The thought of a young striker with explosive pace finally arriving at the London Stadium was an incredibly exciting one.
In typical West Ham fashion though, a move to sign Duran was never really that close.
And now a stunning new claim has been made about our bid for the Colombian ace.
You won’t believe what West Ham did after new Jhon Duran claim
The Villa striker has been in the news recently, after the Hammers resurrected their move to sign him.
The hope of bringing the South American to the London Stadium proved to be a false dawn though.
West Ham’s derisory bid was rejected, unsurprisingly.
And now, according to a report from Claret and Hugh, the Hammers’ move to sign Duran was always ‘doomed to fail’.
That’s because there were two very big problems with our £57 million offer for the Colombian.
Firstly, the bid was worth less than that fee up front, but it did include add-ons to take it up to the £57 million mark.
And secondly, the West Ham owners made that offer full in the knowledge that Paris Saint-Germain had already had a £64 million bid rejected for Duran.
West Ham have seriously messed up here. The latest offer for the Colombia international was nothing more than a ‘we tried’ attempt to appease the fanbase.
The fact we could have signed Duran in the summer had we just paid Villa £40 million really hurts now doesn’t it.
And David Sullivan and co must realise that they made a very big mistake.
Jhon Duran to West Ham won’t be happening
It’s such a shame that we didn’t get a deal to sign Duran done in the summer, when he was sitting there on a plate for us.
The Colombia international is an explosive striker, and he would have transformed us overnight as an attacking force.
We bizarrely opted for Niclas Fullkrug instead of the 21-year-old, and the rest is history, as they say.
West Ham clearly have absolutely no chance of signing Jhon Duran from Aston Villa now.
He will either stay at Villa, or move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs for £70 million plus, and then I predict he’ll be a £100 million striker within the next three years.
The short-term thinking of the owners at our club absolutely baffles me at times.
Signing Jhon Duran in the summer for £40 million would have been a great bit of business, and West Ham would have been guaranteed to double our money within the next two years.
The only positive I can take from this is that it will surely be a big reminder to the Hammers board that paying more in the short-term is sometimes much better for the club in the long-term.
They need to learn from the Duran saga going forward if we are ever to fulfil our potential as a club.
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