Troy Deeney says Arsenal ‘need’ a striker like Jhon Duran to achieve their ambitions, with The club are reportedly lining up a move for the Aston Villa star in the January transfer window.
Duran, 20, has decided where he left off after finishing well last season, scoring seven goals in his first 12 appearances for Villa.
But since the start of the 2024/25 campaign, Duran has made just two starts in all competitions and the Colombian appeared to be furious at being replaced after Villa’s double against Bologna on Tuesday night.
Forced to play second fiddle to Ollie Watkins during his time at Villa, Duran will surely get another chance to start when Unai Emery’s side return to Premier League action at home to Bournemouth this weekend.
In the summer, Chelsea and West Ham were both credited with a strong interest in Duran, but the young forward went on to sign a new contract at Villa Park, tying him to the club until 2030.
The latest reports suggest Arsenal have approached Villa over a proposed move for Duran this winter and Deeney believes the striker would be a perfect fit for the Gunners.
‘You see with Ollie Watkins now his game is up. At the start of the season, Ollie was quite poor, missed a lot of chances,” the former Watford captain told CBS Sports.
‘But he’s got this guy (Duran) in the background, “Come on, who’s this kid? It shouldn’t be like that!”, and now he’s going on, on and on.
‘He just got a big contract… whether it’s to keep him or whether to sell him, that’s for other people to talk about.
‘But for me, if I was Chelsea or Arsenal, that’s the type of striker I need.’
Deeney has been impressed with Duran’s recent form but says pushing for a guaranteed start for the big cub is a ‘completely different’ proposition.
He added: ‘He was young, arrogant, ignorant and got away with it. Every time he scores, he says, “What else do you want me to do?”, but it’s about having a good pro to catch him and say, “Listen, young man…”.
‘I’ve been there, I’ve made more mistakes than most people. You make a lot of mistakes, you think you are a man, you think you know everything.
‘But when you get to 22, 23, 24, people just say, “Oh, we know him now”, and that’s what we need to know now.
“Now, if we don’t score, it doesn’t matter because of Ollie Watkins.
“But if he wants to fill the biggest shoes, being number 9 for any team he plays for, there’s an expectation that you have to score 20 odd goals every season and every game. It’s very different.’
Villa are well aware of the growing interest in Duran from across Europe, with La Liga giants Barcelona also saying they will consider a January transfer offer.
In response, the club have put a £75 million price tag on the Colombian and will not offer any entertainment below that figure.
Villa’s sporting director Monchi recently suggested that up to 40 teams would show interest in Duran in the summer.
“We have two strong strikers, him and Watkins,” he told Sky Italia.
“Duran wants to play more minutes, and we have to sell players because of FFP, but without an important offer, we believe he will stay here.
‘Emery has a lot of faith in him: some offers have come, there have been meetings, but the amount requested has not come.’
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