After the negotiations for striker Samu Omorodion broke down, Chelsea is considering a move to re-sign forward Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid.
Even though a £34.5 million fee had been agreed upon last week, negotiations over personal terms between the Blues and Atletico Madrid’s 20-year-old Omorodion broke down last night.
Omorodion’s deal has always been met with trepidation at Stamford Bridge as the Blues consider making a move for Victor Osimhen of Napoli, Romelu Lukaku going the other way.
Though negotiations have not gone as smoothly as the various parties had hoped, a deal for Omorodion is not entirely off the table.
Chelsea are now considering a move for Felix, among a host of other attacking options, after meeting with his agent Jorge Mendes.
With the confirmation of Pedro Neto’s £54 million contract to join Wolves on Saturday, Chelsea has now signed ten players this summer, with an average age under 21, spending £185 million to bolster their roster to roughly 50 senior players.
Felix, 24, is open to a return to Stamford Bridge where he enjoyed his six months on loan during the 2022-23 season.
Atletico value Felix at around £43m.
Felix became the fifth most expensive player in history in 2019 when Atletico Madrid paid Benfica £113 million for the then-19-year-old.
A further feature of any possible agreement is that it would enable Wanda Metropolitano to pay £34 million for midfielder Conor Gallagher, whereas Atletico would have to make a significant player sale in order to fund the transfer.
Even though Atletico knew the deal would only go through if they were able to close a big player deal, they still shared a picture of Gallagher on social media on Saturday.
In spite of the fact that the La Liga team would have to sell a player in order to acquire Gallagher, their £81.5 million acquisition of Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez is still anticipated to proceed.