West Ham United have just had bid rejected for £18m Chelsea target

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West Ham United have tried to steal a march on Chelsea in the race for one player this month.

Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran is one forward who has been discussed at Stamford Bridge, according to journalist Nathan Gissing.

However, as per The Guardian, it is West Ham who have made the first move for the 20-year-old, making an unsuccessful loan offer for him.

Villa paid Chicago Fire £18m (BBC Sport) to sign Duran when he was still 19, but he has not been given too many starting opportunities this season.

In fact, Unai Emery has not named him in his first XI for a Premier League game once in the current campaign.

West Ham and Chelsea could battle for Jhon Duran’s signature

West Ham have made their move for Duran. It will now be interesting to see if Chelsea make their own and a potential transfer tussle between the two London rivals erupts.

From Chelsea’s perspective, it did not look like they had to go all out for the Colombian.

He lacks Premier League experience and has not really done anything in the country yet to suggest that he is capable of changing the Blues’ fortunes.

However, there is currently a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of Armando Broja, as the Albania international continues to be linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge.

If he goes, Mauricio Pochettino will probably need an extra body like Duran. It would be extremely risky to try and finish the campaign with just Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku. The latter is not even a natural No.9 and has struggled to stay fit this term.

All things considered, Chelsea would be better off just retaining Broja. Does swapping him for Duran, for example, improve them? It is hard to make an argument that it does. Duran has not done anything in the Premier League yet to prove that he would be an upgrade on Broja.