Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has reacted to Joao Felix‘s words on how he wants to play and wished the forward well during his short loan spell at Chelsea.
Felix joined Chelsea on loan for the rest of the season this week and already had a headline-making debut in the Premier League in which he was shown a red card for a reckless tackle.
His overall performance, however, suggests that he could be an important player for the Blues in the next few months.
Despite the lucrative loan agreement with Atletico, Chelsea may still get the better end of the deal in the end.
Felix’s Atletico exit was clearly not down to his being rendered a surplus to requirements.
On the contrary, Atletico, who currently sit sixth in the La Liga table, would have preferred to keep him.
Bear in mind that the 23-year-old had four goals and three assists from just seven La Liga starts this season.
Simeone’s defence-first football was widely believed to be one of, if not the reasons behind Felix’s decision to leave.
Felix’s saying he is a player who “wants to have the ball and play with happiness” in his first Chelsea interview also only adds fuel to the speculations.
Simeone has unsurprisingly had to deal with plenty of questions about Felix’s Chelsea move
“I’m not going to dwell on such a long explanation,” said the Atletico manager in his recent press conference (via Marca).
“He [Felix] has extraordinary qualities, he is young and has the enthusiasm to show his football, I hope he does well wherever he is.”
On whether he considers Felix’s words as a message to him, Simeone said: “No, but it is a question for him.”
There is reportedly no option to buy in the loan agreement between Chelsea and Atletico, so a return to Spain capital is obviously a possibility for Felix.
A recent report from The Telegraph, however, suggests Chelsea are confident that they will be able to sign the Portugal international if they wish to.
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