'Chelsea thought I was too expensive four months ago – now I'm worth twice as much'

Chelsea pondered signing Jhon Duran during the summer and they may pay the price for pulling the plug on a £40million move.

The Aston Villa striker has come racing out of the blocks this season and his rapidly-rising stock received another boost on Wednesday night, when his audacious finish earned the West Midlands side a Champions League victory over Bayern Munich.

Not even Erling Haaland can match Duran’s Premier League strike rate of a goal every 39 minutes so far this season. And the Manchester City striker also comes out second best when pitted against the Colombian’s 40-per-cent conversion rate – which is particularly astonishing given the variety of goals the Villa man scores, such as his long-distance screamer against Everton last month.

Despite his heroics in front of goal, Duran is still playing second fiddle to Ollie Watkins at Villa Park. But he may not be for long, with top clubs sure to come sniffing around in January.

All of them will be quoted top dollar by Villa, who would turn a monster profit on the £18m they paid to Chicago Fire almost two years ago. In fact, Duran has reportedly been slapped with an £80m price tag ahead of the winter window.

That eye-watering sum would be painful for Chelsea to cough up if they reignite their interest, having passed up the opportunity to sign Duran for half that during the summer.

The saga reached its peak in June, when the Blues were given permission to discuss personal terms with the 20-year-old after an extensive period of scouting. Villa were believed to be willing to sell in order to boost their profit and sustainability position but the switch did not progress beyond that point.

Strong interest from West Ham also amounted to nothing, and Villa will now be thanking their lucky stars. There were murmurings about attitude problems last season but Villa captain John McGinn claims the youngster has got his act together, and it is paying dividends on the pitch.

“I was quite hard on him last season,” said the Scotsman in August. “Just about his attitude and how he can improve that, but in all fairness I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I think the coaching staff and players have been pleasantly surprised too about how he has handled it all.

“He has all the attributes to be a world-class striker and we’re seeing glimpses of it now. He doesn’t seem to have let anything in the summer affect him. Maybe the penny has dropped for him. The way he is around people, around the staff – it has improved a lot and it’s great to see.”