Chelsea have turned a corner in recent weeks with three consecutive wins and six goals scored, but the Blues have had trouble in front of goal all season and The Athletic say they’ve made it a ‘transfer priority’ to sign a striker when the summer transfer window opens.
Joao Felix, who joined on loan from Atletico Madrid in January, is one player they’re running the rule on. The 23-year-old has made eight appearances for Chelsea this campaign, scoring just one goal, but The Athletic say the Blues are ‘weighing up’ whether to sign him permanently.
Chelsea let a lot of strikers leave last summer, selling Timo Werner back to RB Leipzig, Michy Batshuayi to Fenerbahce and loaning Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan, but they didn’t recruit well at all. The Blues spent £536m on new players over two transfer windows but ended up with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, David Datro Fofana, Armando Broja and Felix who cost £30m.
Aubameyang scored an impressive 13 goals in 24 games for Barcelona but was dropped prior to his Chelsea move and only netted in two of his last nine league appearances. He was released from his contract at Arsenal after a major fallout with Mikel Arteta, so it was a big risk to sign him.
As for Fofana, he’s made only three appearances this season and has yet to find the back of the net. Chelsea signed him from Molde, so he’s been struggling in the deep end ever since he arrived. And as for Broja, he scored nine goals in 38 games while on loan at Southampton last season, so it remains to be seen why Chelsea expected so much from him this campaign.
Felix has made 131 appearances in all competitions since joining Atleti from Benfica in 2019, scoring 34 goals with 18 assists. The Portuguese international has yet to hit double figures in his four seasons with the Spaniards, so is he really the answer for Chelsea? According to Relevo in February, Atleti are seeking around €100m (£87.8m) for Felix which Chelsea will never pay considering his lowly output on loan, so time will tell if he ends up joining permanently.
The Blues want Victor Osimhen from Napoli and may prefer to spend a large sum of money on this season’s 23-goal man than Felix. It would make sense.
