London is Blue Dispatch #049

If your social media feed has been inundated with posts offering inside information on Jhon Duran, right down to why he is bound to fail and where he gets his favorite arepas in Colombia, do yourself a favour and step away. Eleven months ago, Chelsea moved swiftly to seal the signing of a player who had played only 500 minutes of senior Premier League football. Here are some expert opinions for your perusal.

“It is better to stay quiet and be thought of as dumb, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” An important adage, but conventional wisdom and social media mix as well as oil and water. There has been criticism galore about the direction and quantity of the recruitment, but the quality and hit-rate of Chelsea’s South American signings is nothing less than admirable.

Picking up Ecuador’s Kendry Paez, who is already living up to promise at just 17, Andrey Santos’ heroics at Strasbourg that have reportedly earned him a spot in Maresca’s squad next season and Brazil’s Willian Estevao are all elite talents with a world-class ceiling. Questioning, or worse, mocking, the work that must have gone into perusing another South American in Duran, is quite the bold move, to put it kindly, considering our interest was strong back in January too.

Should Duran’s signing go through, he will arrive at Stamford Bridge with the same number of PL starts as Cole Palmer – 3. Their PL minutes played so far are also startlingly similar, with Duran’s 511 narrowly shading the 504 Palmer had at City. Duran is also two years younger than Palmer was when he signed on the dotted line. Yes, the odds of a young player almost beating Erling Haaland for the Golden Boot in his first full senior season inch closer to that of a small miracle, but should Duran even marginally better his rate of 5 PL goals in 475 minutes, the 1500 odd-minutes he could get as 2^nd choice CF in a long season could push him comfortably past double digits. Football is seldom ever as simple as basic arithmetic, but you get the gist.

Personally, I had my eyes on Duran as far back as January last year (you can find my receipt below.) Yet even then I’m hesitant to offer a detailed assessment until I watch his recent performances more closely. Rest assured, preparations are already underway for a scouting special but that’s how much work it takes for me, personally, to be semi-confident.

Over the next few hours, days, there will be all kinds of stuff popping up about Duran – like the fact that he has quite the attitude issues (attested to by his teammate John McGinn) and that he allegedly faced internal disciplinary action regarding a rental property he trashed where Villa themselves had to get involved. Sure, you can debate there’s a fine line and a lot of risk in signing a player that could go one of two ways - Balotelli or Diego Costa - but there’s hope that in the right conditions that chaos can be harnessed, not diluted or supressed.

There are still a few days left before the Euros and Copa America get underway. Not the worst time to watch a few Villa games and see what the fuss is all about.