Aston Villa captain John McGinn admits he has been “pleasantly surprised” by Jhon Duran’s attitude since returning to Bodymoor Heath last month.
The Colombia international missed most of pre-season under Unai Emery after representing his nation at the Copa America and was the subject of intense transfer interest from a number of clubs. He wanted a move to West Ham after they lodged a bid for him, but Villa stood firm to their valuation, knowing what a prospect they have on their hands.
Duran hit the headlines for the wrong reasons over the summer when he made the Irons gesture on an Instagram live stream, but he has done his talking on the pitch at the start of this season. He bagged the winning goal against West Ham on the opening weekend of the season, before doubling Villa’s lead against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium last time out.
“He’s certainly got his focus back,” McGinn said of Duran after the win over Leicester. “For a young player to have so much attention and speculation surrounding him … he’s a character, you can see that at the training ground.
“I was quite hard on him last season after one of the games in an interview. 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’s an Aston Villa player. He’s trained really well. He has all the attributes to be a world-class striker and we’re seeing glimpses of it now.
“It’s credit to him for being focused. If you come and watch training now, he’s focused and he’s sharp and ready to go. Hopefully, we can see more of that and it’s up to us, as players, to make sure he keeps going in the same vein.”
McGinn added: “He doesn’t seem to have let anything in the summer affect him. Maybe the penny has dropped for him. He’ll get his opportunities, chances and his goals and even his attitude off the pitch.
“The way he is around people, around the staff – it has improved a lot – and it’s great to see. We don’t want to see him lose his character, his sense of fun – we don’t want him to lose that – but it’s about doing it at the right times and hopefully he’s found that.”
Duran has replaced Ollie Watkins on the hour mark in each of Villa’s first three league games this season. Watkins has now gone eight Premier League appearances without a goal for Villa, which is his longest barren run since August 2022 to October 2022 just prior to Emery’s arrival, but skipper McGinn is backing him to get back among the goals after firing the team into the Champions League with 19 of them last term.
“Of course he will be scoring soon,” McGinn said. “We had a lot of people involved in competitions in the summer, and with some of us it takes different times to get going and get into a rhythm.
“I’m probably guilty of that as well. But there will be a time at a certain point of the season when Ollie hits top form. We just have to wait for when that comes.
“The manager wants two people to be able to play in every position and Jhon came on and it was an amazing header. We won’t be thinking about Ollie too much, we won’t be worrying about it. I am sure he will go away with England, get fresher and ready to go.”
Villa have taken six points from a possible nine so far this term and will face Everton and Wolves at Villa Park either side of their first Champions League league phase fixture against Young Boys in Switzerland.
Asked to sum up the start to the season, McGinn said: “Really good. If we compare it last season, it wasn’t great – and look where we ended up so it was a tough away game. I don’t think we have hit top form yet but we’re playing well, being brave.
“We’re letting teams come onto us at times which we won’t want, going forward. It was a strong performance and Leicester’s fans were desperate for the referee to make a decision but he got the big decisions right and thankfully we were on the right side of some calm decisions because he was under some pressure there.”
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