What Does The Future Hold For Joao Felix As Chelsea Loan Comes To An End?

While Chelsea performed well to claim their first win under interim manager Frank Lampard against Bournemouth, it did nothing to change the context of the Blues’ season as a whole. Chelsea are now officially safe from relegation, but the fact this has only been achieved with four fixtures remaining says a lot about the failure of their campaign.

This summer will be a pivotal one for the Stamford Bridge club as they aim to make amends for the countless makes made over the course of the 2022/23 season. Whoever replaces Lampard as permanent manager will inherit a mess of a squad in desperate need of remoulding. Mauricio Pochettino is the current favourite to take over.

A good number of players will surely be on their way out. Mason Mount is entering the final year of his contract as a Chelsea player and is attracting interest from Liverpool and Manchester United – he could be sold. Conor Gallagher is another asset Chelsea could move on to ease any Financial Fair Play (FFP) fears.

There are questions over the future of Edouard Mendy, N’Golo Kante, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, to name a few others, but Chelsea must also make a decision on Joao Felix, the on-loan Atletico Madrid forward who will return to his parent club at the end of the season.

Felix has been a first team starter for Chelsea since arriving in the January transfer window. The Portuguese has featured in 13 Premier
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League games and has frequently been the main hub for the Blues’ attacking play in the final third of the pitch. While Felix has only scored three league goals, he has looked lively.

Chelsea paid £11m to sign Felix on loan in the first place and would be required to stump up around £88m to land the attacker on a permanent basis. That would make the 23-year-old one of the most expensive players in Premier League history, but Chelsea need cohesion and Felix offers that as a versatile and technically able operator.

It could be argued, though, that Chelsea need a more orthodox number nine. In Romelu Lukaku, they already have a player in this mould on their books with the Belgian currently on loan at Inter. Could Lukaku be part of the solution for Chelsea as they attempt to reshape their squad for the 2023/24 season?

If Chelsea don’t sign Felix permanently, this could leave the attacker in a difficult position considering Atletico Madrid have dramatically improved since he left in January. The 23-year-old could be left in no man’s land, stuck between a parent club that no longer wants him and a loan suitor not willing to pay his asking price.