João Félix to Chelsea: Reaction!
What could the Portuguese attacker bring to London in his second stint?
João Félix to Chelsea? How did we get here!
As Sunday evening unfolded the news of Chelsea’s pursuit of Samu Omorodion came to a dramatic halt.
Samu’s deal was thrown off for a potential of rumored reasons: failed medical, personal terms not being agreed, or what I think truly happened Chelsea moving their stance on bringing in Victor Osimhen.
I think most Chelsea fans definitely saw the potential in Omorodion, but another project striker in a room that has projects such as Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu, Devied Washington, and others further down the totem pole, it didn’t make sense to pay that fee for a player who would likely be at best a second choice option in such a critical season.
As the night moved on it became clear that Chelsea would still need to purchase a player from Atletico Madrid in order to ensure that Conor Gallagher would complete his move to the Spanish side.
Enter João Félix…
Not to pat myself on the back, but before Fabrizio tweeted this out I had suggested that Chelsea would be looking at Félix. (Got to give myself some credit lol)
After the report came out that Félix was potentially an option the rumors started to heat up even further.
Whatever you think of Félix and his abilities or lack there of, Félix has a really strong technical ability and positional versatility. He fits the mold of that swiss army knife that Enzo Maresca wants in his squad and has in players like Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku.
I personally believe Félix can work if a couple of things are true.
He cannot be gifted anything. Since Félix’s move from Benfica to Atletico his financial burden has come with game time even when it wasn’t truly warranted in relation to his output. He needs to truly earn every minute, because the quality in the forward room has dramatically increased.
Wages need to be more than reasonable. Félix at his highest was on upwards of €280k a week at Atletico Madrid according to Capology. Currently his wage is listed at €115k a week. I believe that the latter number better represents his value currently. If Chelsea can land him for that wage it makes it a lot more sense.
He needs to play with a chip on his shoulder. I think Félix has been coasting on his wages and natural talent since he got to Atletico, but there is a player that had to get to that big move. His natural ability can only carry him so far, but if he even put in a semi-noticeable amount of work ethic and determination I think he could really make an impact on this team. As I said before, Chelsea have a huge talent pool in Felix’s positions so I don’t think he will see starts and gametime unless he puts the effort in and shows he cares.
Knock-On Effect
Some of the most pivotal news to come from this potential transfer is the players that could potentially leave because of the Félix addition.
Did he say Sterling would be EXPECTED to leave? That would be absolutely incredible. The knock on effect of getting £325k off the books and bringing in a player who has a higher trajectory for a fraction of a cost. What an absolute dream this could be.
For Madueke, it would feel like a bit of an unfinished story if Chelsea would move on from him at this point, but he hasn’t done anything to this point that makes him unsellable and Chelsea have plenty of cover for him now and in the future with Esteavo Willian and Kendry Paez coming in.
Another huge knock on effect of not bringing in Omorodion is that Chelsea could swiftly move on their pursuit of Victor Osimhen and moving Romelu Lukaku back the other way to Napoli. While Osimhen’s wages would still be high, moving on from Lukaku’s £325k a week the other way would lead to a total of £650k moving off the books from both Sterling & Lukaku.
Now these are a lot of dominoes that need to happen to reach this promise land of landing both Félix and Osimhen, but the first steps were just taken in the last 24 hours. Lets see where this story takes us.
For a video recap of my thoughts on the Félix situation check out my latest YouTube video here.
~ CFCDP (Dylan)
Would be one of the stupidest moves we’ve made since Clearlake came in and that’s saying something. We have enough players that are his profile. It just stinks of being told what to do by a super agent and once again proves there’s no plan of what we want to achieve. Once again will prove we’re ran by a bunch of clowns
Felix reminds me of one of my first girlfriends. Incredibly comfortable on the eye, but in the end she left me disappointed and frustrated, she promised so much but delivered so little. His final output was so disappointing in his first spell. I used to listen to pundits creaming themselves over his performances and at the end of the game I used to think what did the guy actually produce, not a lot apart from a few silky runs that ended up with us losing the ball and poor finishing.