The future of Joao Felix appears to be in London and the Blues will pay almost £8.5m more than the cost of the Samu Omorodion deal according to reports.
There was a flurry of transfer activity on Sunday evening with the news that Omorodion’s move to Stamford Bridge had fallen through because of a major issue on finalising his contract despite a fee of £34.5m being agreed.
It was then quickly reported by Fabrizio Romano that Chelsea were in talks with Atletico over a possible deal for Felix as the La Liga outfit are believed to need to offload a player in order to finance their move for Julian Alvarez.
Felix’s future lies in London
Despite the deal for Omorodion collapsing Conor Gallagher’s move to the Spanish capital is still fully expected to go through and all that remains is an official announcement.
A potential return for Felix came has come completely out of the Blue, but he shares the same agent as Pedro Neto in Jorge Mendes, who was conveniently in London on Sunday as Neto was presented to the Chelsea fans.
Ben Jacobs had reported that Atletico would be prepared to sanction a sale at around €50m and the clubs are in talks about the possibility of Felix returning to Stamford Bridge.
However, Spanish journalist Eduardo Burgos has reported that the future of Felix appears to be in London and Chelsea could end up paying £8.5m more than Omorodion would have cost.
Burgos adds that Villa had prepared a bid of €50m for Felix, who wanted to return to Stamford Bridge last summer but Mauricio Pochettino rejected the opportunity to bring the Portugal international back.
The 24-year-old spent the second half of the 2022/2023 season on loan at the club and scored four goals in 20 appearances before spending last season on loan at Barcelona and his future almost certainly lies away from Atletico.
If Chelsea did complete this deal it would just go to show that you have to be prepared to expect the unexpected in the transfer window with the Blues and quite literally anything could be possible.
