Estavo Willian is set to become the first signing of the summer for Chelsea FC, but who will be the second? It was looking like Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran was going to be the answer to that question, but maybe not so much anymore.
According to a report in The Guardian, Chelsea are having second thoughts about acquiring the 20-year-old Colombian, who is valued at about £40m.
There are concerns over his wage demands and his attitude.
The latter is certainly nothing new as he was notorious for having attitude issues while he was at Chicago Fire FC. Villa acquired him from the MLS club for about $18 million (which broke the Fire club record for a transfer sale) in January of 2023.
Not sure if there have ever been any documented attitude issues with him at Villa yet.
The report goes on to say that Chelsea are doing some background checks, and if those end up being satisfactory to Stamford Bridge, the Jhon Duran deal can still go through.
It is common though for a player’s attitude issues to follow him, wherever he goes. See Jadon Sancho.
He had problems with the coaching staffs at Manchester City and the England national team before the blowup with Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.
Moving on to the second of our two items today, as you can see from the Fabrizio Romano (a man who is a transfer news brand name outlet all by himself) tweet below, Chelsea are set to hold on to one of their most talented and promising youngsters at the club.
The captain of the Under-16s, who has played with the U-18s, is going to stay put.
?? EXCL: Chelsea talented CB Tayo Subuloye has agreed on new deal at the club, set to sign first pro contract as soon as he turns 17.
Agreement in place for U16s #CFC captain who won PL U17s cup and plays U18s.
Despite interest from several PL clubs, he’s staying at Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/4YDZml4SCY
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 15, 2024
We’ll be back with more on Tayo Subuloye shortly.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.