€45m Chelsea star has “never been closer” to major move back home | OneFootball

You’d be forgiven for forgetting Joao Felix actually plays for Chelsea.

After joining on a permanent deal in the summer, the attacker featured very little in the Premier League in the first half of the season before being sent out on loan to AC Milan in January.

Things didn’t go great for him in Italy either, and he will soon be returning to Chelsea once again. It really seems like Enzo Maresca doesn’t fancy him at all, which is pretty frustrating given the Italian had already been appointed as manager when Felix was signed.

Benfica close in on Felix deal

Joao Felix wearing number 79 for Benfica.

Atletico Madrid handed their hot potato to us and we accepted it gladly – now it’s burning our hands and we need to get out of this situation ASAP.

The good news is that there is at least some interest. Record in Portugal are today saying that Benfica are “closer than ever” to re-signing their former player.

There isn’t a huge amount of detail, but it seems likely to be a loan deal with a fixed option to buy. We paid €45m for Felix a year ago, and wouldn’t accept much less than that, we don’t think. He will have to take a wage cut to go back to his old team – but given how his career has gone, that

Selling Felix opens up options for Chelsea

Selling Felix would solve a lot of issues. He doesn’t really fit in the squad, and the money brought in from selling him could be far better deployed elsewhere.

It was a mistake to buy him in the first place – if we can get out of that now, that would be a huge boost ahead of an important summer. We should be pretty grateful that Benfica are interested at all, and should do all we can to shift him, even for a small loss.