Unai Emery says he has a plan for Jhon Duran this summer.
Aston Villa’s boss wants to keep the young Colombian who he says is now in his ‘best moment’ with the Birmingham club. Duran leapt off the bench last Monday to score a late brace that helped Villa over the line in their quest for Champions League qualification.
The 20-year-old has now bagged eight goals in his first season in the Premier League. But he has been an understudy to Ollie Watkins - yet the rumour mill suggests that Chelsea are interested in recruiting him. This is on the back of interest in January from AC Milan.
Emery says he wants to keep Duran right where he is. “I believe in Jhon Duran,” said the Spaniard, “when we signed him, he was 19 years old. This season, he started with an injury. He started playing in August or September - he didn’t even have a pre-season. He’s getting better. Now is his best moment with us. But his adaptation has not been easy.
"And I think he is showing the capacity for us, particularly in the last match. He’s here because we wanted him and we want to keep him as well. We think he can improve us, so we want him to stay here and work with us.
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Duran scored twice against Liverpool last Monday (Getty Images)“His potential is great. He needs a plan. I’m trying to do it. His numbers are good, scoring goals, some penalties as well through him. If we can anaylse the minutes he played when he was competitive, I think he’s helping us. At the moment, I’m happy with him.”
In his final debrief, Emery also wanted to highlight Nicolo Zaniolo’s contribution to the cause. The Italian international is on loan from Galatasaray but Villa will not press the button on any move due to their on-going issues over financial fair play. And it appears that in his desperation to help Villa over the line, the 22-year-old may have scuppered any chances he had of going to the Euros this summer with Italy.
Emery added: "We have one player not available and I want to make special mention of him - Zaniolo - because he broke his metatarsal. We got the bad news on Monday. He was a doubt but he made the effort to play against Liverpool even though he had a lot of pain in his back.
Italy international Nicolo Zaniolo is set to miss Euro 2024 (Getty Images)"That was a small injury after we played Lille but it was very painful for him. However he made a big effort because we needed every player pushing to be there and he played 10 minutes and unfortunately in that time he broke his metatarsal. He's going to miss the European Championship now with the Italian national team and it is very sad for him.
"He had made a big effort because the start of the season was very difficult for him but he was progressively getting better. In the last two months he was really really playing well and helping us - so what happened on Monday was very sad.”
Villa’s boss said he expects and open game at Selhurst Park and is under no illusion that his side are facing one of the division’s in-form teams.
He added: “We have to respect the Premier League and Crystal Palace are playing amazing, they are playing really, really well. They are on the up. The League is finishing but they are in a very good moment, like us and like Chelsea as well. I think both of those teams are in their best moments of the season and we must respect Palace.”
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