Jhon Durán Picked The Funniest Time And Place To Score

One of the more peculiar things about the Premier League is that every season begins in a state of limbo. The opening and closing of the summer transfer window (it opened on June 14 this year and will close on August 30) does not align with the beginning of the season, which means that each campaign begins as transfers that will meaningfully reshape rosters and careers continue to be worked on. Every year, teams and players have to kick off the season and play several games without really knowing for sure what the final rosters are going to look like after deadline day.

This can lead to frustrating outcomes, such as Brentford fans waking up today to the news that the team's star player, Ivan Toney, would not be playing in the season-opener against Crystal Palace because a transfer is imminent. The strange schedule can also lead to genuinely funny moments, though, like what happened to Aston Villa's Jhon Durán yesterday.

The 20-year-old Colombian arrived at Villa halfway through the 2022-23 season, and since then he has only started three games. Seeking more regular playing time, Durán has been agitating for a move away from Villa this summer, with Chelsea and West Ham showing the most concrete interest. Earlier this month, either because he felt sure his move to West Ham was imminent or because he wanted to increase the pressure on Villa, Durán went on Instagram Live and made the Irons gesture that is associated with West Ham. Villa fans were not super happy about this, and the team was steamed enough to announce that disciplinary action would be taken against the striker.

Durán is still waiting to be sold, and wouldn't you know it, Aston Villa opened its season yesterday at West Ham. Durán started the game on the bench, but was subbed on in the second half with the score tied 1-1. A few minutes after coming on, Durán scored the winning goal; after doing so he ran over to the home fans to make an apologetic gesture and point at the ground, as if to say, "I'm staying here."

But where is he staying? The game was in West Ham's stadium, which raises the possibility that the message Durán was trying to communicate to his fans was something like, Hey guys, sorry about all the offseason drama. Hopefully that goal will smooth things over a bit, but unfortunately I do still want to play for West Ham, so I'm going to stay here, OK?

Perhaps hoping that Durán would clarify things, or at least seize another opportunity to fire up the Villa faithful, a member of the team's social media team posted up in the tunnel to get some footage of Durán walking into the victors' locker room. After having had some time to think things over, Durán was a little less, ah, enthusiastic about having scored the winner:

Aston Villa still has another league game to play before the transfer window closes. Maybe Durán can score a hat trick in that one and then recreate the Magic Johnson "I'm not gonna be here" press conference afterwards.