Simeone gets rid of a 'problem': Joao Félix, to Chelsea

The fourth season was announced as the definitive jump.

, who was turning 23, wanted to stop being known as the most expensive guy in the history of Atlético de Madrid to become the necessary reference.

A physical preparation on vacation in Ibiza, a reset after a previous season marked by the final injury and a summer, finally, without rumors of departure.

Nothing is further from the intentions, the Portuguese packs on January 10 the suitcases that he has been ordering for a long time.

He is already in London, he will play for Chelsea until the end of the season (in the absence of an official announcement), on loan without a purchase option.

An escape route for the player, for the club and, above all, for

.

A collective failure too.

Because something broke a long time ago with Cholo.

Cross messages, continuous fuss, punishments and such extreme performance, in good and bad, that it stung.

openly stated

during the World Cup.

Joao Félix, who before leaving extended his contract for another year (until 2027) as the last rojiblanca condition (to reduce the annual amortization), finds a place in the Premier where he can at least smile and relaunch his career.

Atlético, outside Europe and without title options in the League, alleviates their accounts, as Chelsea pays a total of around 12 million euros, eight for the loan plus the Portuguese's salary until the end of the course.

And Simeone gets rid of a problem.

In six months a new chapter will be written for the player for whom Atlético paid Benfica 127.2 million euros when he had not even turned 20, an unprecedented outlay in the mattress entity, "the biggest bet the club has made" .

Then, at the end of the season, all the scenarios of the

network will be contemplated again.

The sale of the attacking midfielder, for whom no one seemed willing to pay the 100 million now that Atlético demanded, neither Arsenal nor Manchester United, who were the other interested teams.

Or permanence if the Cholo era comes to an end 11 years later.

A Chelsea in crisis

Before putting himself under the orders of

and trying to react to a Chelsea that is 10th in the Premier, far from even the European positions and that has been eliminated from the FA Cup -in the Champions League they will face Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 -, Joao Félix played, with more pain than glory, his last rojiblanco game on Sunday against that Barça that several summers ran as a suitor.

He did it as a starter, after 'erasing' from the two Cup games at Arenteiro and Oviedo on his return from the World Cup.

And this time he was not as important as in his previous ones: he had just scored four goals (his only ones of his in this League) in the last three games.

"The field speaks," Simeone had said a long time ago about his deteriorating relationship with Joao Félix, who has participated in 14 of Atlético's 16 league games, seven as a starter and only one complete.

And in five of the Champions League, in which he was not a starter or scored either.

In total, in his three and a half seasons as a rojiblanco, marked by physical problems and also by this last stretch of obvious conflict with his coach, the Portuguese has played 131 games, with a record of 34 goals and 18 assists.

After the transfer of Joao and that of

to Wolverhampton, Atlético relieves its staff and its salary mass, one of the objectives of the directive after the European elimination.

But additions such as

from Betis are not ruled out, nor is the return of any of the loanees, especially that of a

who shines at Girona.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• joao felix