Former midfielder urges Jhon Duran to stay patient at Aston Villa
Former Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie has urged super sub Jhon Duran to stay patient and grounded following his remarkable scoring run.
The red-hot Columbian has scored eight of his nine Premier League goals from the substitutes bench as well as netting the decider in the memorable Champions League victory over Bayern Munich.
Hendrie believes Ollie Watkins has earned the right to remain Villa’s main man for the time being and hopes that the sheer volume of games will be enough to appease the ambitious Duran.
“The way things have been going, Jhon has been that impact player and been fantastic,” said Hendrie, who was speaking at the Copa del Cure Leukaemia tournament at St George’s Park.
“If you keep doing that, centre forwards want to be playing from the off because they think they can score more goals.
“The problem is, we’ve got a fantastic striker in Ollie Watkins and it’s going to take some doing to overtake him. But if Jhon keeps doing what he’s doing, why shouldn’t Unai (Emery) think about possibly playing the pair together. That would be down to his tactics, I don’t think he’ll do that and the way things have gone for Villa is a result of the style and formation. It’s a great option to have two strikers scoring goals.”
The striker made no secret of his desire to leave in the summer as Villa rejected a bid reportedly reaching around £35 million from West Ham.
The club could argue that Duran is worth double that amount after his flying start to the season and have rewarded the 20-year-old with a new contract which keeps him at the club until 2030.
Duran is bound to have bigger ideas than playing second fiddle to Watkins but Hendrie believes that Villa is the right environment for him for now.
“He’s still learning and still has a way to go,” said Hendrie.
“He’s learnt, he’s progressed and sometimes players want more than that. They want to be number one. But they’ve rewarded him with a new contract so they’ve protected the asset.“We’ve got a lot of games so he is going to have opportunities, the key factor is that he takes it when he gets those chances and keeps putting the pressure on Ollie.”
While Villa may have problems keeping hold of Duran, the same could be said for manager Emery.
The Spaniard has rebuilt his reputation after a forgettable spell at Arsenal but Hendrie fears the biggest clubs in the world will come calling again unless Villa keep pace with his excellence.
“There’s no doubt he is up there as one of the best Villa have ever had,” said Hendrie.
“He’s a world class manager and the longer he keeps doing what he’s doing, it’s going to make it a harder situation for Villa to keep hold of him because as we know, the top managers want to keep progressing.
“Villa have a great platform and Unai has been at the heart of that, it’s all down to him and we’ve got an unbelievable manager. His theory and logic of football, he’s just a specimen of football.
“I think he realises the significance of what’s going on but sometimes you get to a stage where you ask if we can get to that next level and that’s the key factor now.
“He’s got a fantastic club at his peril and hopefully we keep adding to that and progressing as we have over the last season or two.”
n Cure Leukaemia is a UK-based blood cancer charity founded in 2003, working to accelerate the process of bringing life-saving treatments to leukaemia patients by funding specialist Research Nurses across the country
