Whilst I can understand why people are disappointed about missing out on Felix, I think theres a high likelihood that this wont work out well for Chelsea:
- With the loan fee, wages and taxes Chelsea are paying close to £700k a week for the privilege of loaning Joao Felix - this is more than we were paying for Ronaldo and closer to Mbappe levels of investment.
- Felix has a 1 in 4 goal scoring record in la liga. He’d have to find the best form of his entire career to score more than 5 goals for Chelsea.
- People blame Simeone for this poor return but his record for Portugal is 1 in 7 (4 goals in 28 appearances). Hardly prolific.
- He has an extensive history of ankle injuries which will no doubt be a worry for a slight-bodied 23 year old playing in one of the worlds most physical leagues for the first time.
- Felix has never played more than 1700 minutes in the league in his career. Thats around 18 full games per season. The intensity of the premier league is already a huge step up, let alone in a season like this where there are games every 3 or 4 days. His form or fitness will likely deteriorate long before the season ends.
- He’ll be playing in London away from most of his Portuguese compatriots (most of whom are up north) in a struggling Chelsea team where both the fan base and dressing room appears to be at odds with the manager.
- Even if he bucks trend and breaks the Chelsea forward curse Chelsea have no option to make the deal permanent and will likely be held over a barrell by Atletico.
The most likely outcome here is that Felix shows flashes of talent, scores very few goals and ends up injured or exhausted. He’ll ride the bench for the remainder of the season before heading back to Atletico, just like Saul Niguez before him.
