Joao Felix Next Club Odds: Arsenal and Chelsea battling it out for his signature
Joao Felix has been the subject of an abundance of transfer market rumours in the last few weeks.
The word is that Atletico Madrid want him out, but they are expecting some clubs to pay a whopping £20m loan fee in an attempt to recoup some of their original investment on the youngster.
The football world was put on notice in 2018 when Felix burst onto the scene, scoring 25 league goals for Benfica. That quickly caught the attention of all the big European clubs and Atletico Madrid were the first to submit a huge £113m offer which was eventually accepted.
The transfer has been fairly hit-and-miss with the Portuguese international not managing to reach double digits in the league in any of his campaigns at Atleti so far.
With the current state of the transfer market, the club believes now is the right time to look at other options and if they can get anywhere near their initial investment, they’ll certainly be happy. Many Premier League clubs have been thrown into the mix and they largely dominate the betting market.
We’ll be looking at the odds provided by the bookmakers and speak about where Felix might be playing his football next...
Arsenal - 2/1
Premier League frontrunners Arsenal have been installed as the favourites to secure Joao Felix’s signature this January. The bookmakers make them a 2/1 shot to sign the forward and the rumours have caught traction following the injury to Gabriel Jesus.
Jesus was arguably one of Arsenal’s best players before his injury and whilst they are still looking good without him, it’s no secret he was a key part to their success and they’ll be desperate to get him back. Unfortunately, his injury is worse than first imagined and it’s looking like it will be at least the end of February until he is back.
With their main attacking threat being out, they’re apparently looking for a short-term alternative in the form of a loan. Felix is reportedly on the market and Atletico are looking for a loan deal. The move makes sense for Arsenal but Madrid are doing themselves no favours by requesting a £20m loan fee which will most likely not be paid by any clubs.
If they can secure a reasonable deal then I don’t see why this couldn’t happen, it all depends on Atletico Madrid, Arsenal would definitely be keen for a loan move and it will definitely sort out their short-term attacking problem.
Chelsea - 5/2
One team that has never been shy of splashing the cash is Chelsea and whilst I still don’t think anyone will buy such a hefty price for a loan fee, they could definitely move for him on a permanent transfer if the price is right.
Chelsea are hardly lacking in the attacking department with the likes of Kai Havertz, Raheem Sterling, Christian Pulisic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Hakim Ziyech. But one more attacker never hurt anyone right?
Many reports are suggesting Chelsea have heavily enquired about a loan move until the end of the season for the forward, and you could argue it makes sense for them but is he really much better than Havertz or Aubameyang?
It’s clear that Chelsea need something to spark the club again with Graham Potter’s tenure not yielding many positives, perhaps some fresh blood could give the team the creativity they are clearly lacking. If it’s just a loan deal it could be worth the gamble for Chelsea as they sit all the way down in 10th at the time of writing this. If you were a Chelsea fan, you would definitely not be against the signing of such a player.
Man Utd - 7/2
Of course, no transfer saga is complete without the mention of Manchester United. The Red Devils are seemingly linked with every star player and you best believe the bookmakers will always price them up for any player to lure in the dedicated Reds to a punt.
Whilst this may not be a case of just adding Man Utd into the mix for the sake of it, they’re not pursuing him as heavily as some of the London clubs. Manchester United have of course recently lost Cristiano Ronaldo and whilst that has proved to be a successful move on their behalf, they are now lacking some attacking options down the middle.
Anthony Martial is pretty much their sole central forward at this point and he may be a fan favourite but he is not putting up the numbers he should be. United have freed up a lot of room on their wage bill with Cristiano’s departure and they could invest the money in another Portuguese star.
It fits the bill, but Erik Ten Hag seems to be quite happy with his current squad and with their recent form you can see why. United are infamous for their transfer decisions but I can’t really see them investing so heavily on a loan deal, and this is not a deal that will be happening in January in my opinion. However, they did lose out on Cody Gakpo to Liverpool so this could definitely make it more interesting, Man Utd have definitely done crazier things in January.
Others
Elsewhere the list gets pretty dicey with Aston Villa being priced up at 12/1 and PSG at 20/1 with Betvictor. It would be a massive statement from Aston Villa but I don’t think any football fan can see him going to play for a team that are in the bottom-half of the Premier League.
PSG have an abundance of superstar attacking options and there is no way they move in for another in Joao Felix. After that Liverpool are mentioned in the betting but they are not going to sign Gakpo and Felix in one window. Real Madrid are also the biggest outsiders but again, they are all good for attacking options and a switch to another Madrid club on loan will most definitely not happen.
Wherever he ends up it would be nice to see him become the player we know he can be and it would certainly be interesting to see how he fares in the Premier League.
