£90m star’s Premier League exit confirmed - one week after Newcastle United shirt image

Joao Felix isn’t staying at Chelsea next season after new boss Mauricio Pochettino decided against signing the Portuguese star permanently.

The Blues paid a £9million loan fee, as well as cover his full weekly wage, to bring Felix to Stamford Bridge from Atletico Madrid in January. He featured 16 times in the Premier League, including against Newcastle United on Sunday, and scored four goals.

Former Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain manager Pochettino was announced as Chelsea’s new boss on Monday and has swiftly decided not to extend the 23-year-old stay in West London, according to Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo.

Cerezo told Spanish outlet AS: ‘Yesterday we had the news that the new Chelsea manager (Pochettino) does not (want) Joao Felix. We’ve known for less than 24 hours. He’ll come back here and we’ll see. We don’t have anything planned.”

Felix, who was open to staying at Chelsea, is now facing an uncertain summer having fallen out of favour under Diego Simeone in Madrid. Naturally, as seems to be the case with every high-profile player at the moment, Newcastle have been linked with Felix.

Portuguese outlet Eleven Sports wrote on Instagram last week that the Magpies were the only club willing to pay the £90million price tag Atletico want. That seems highly unlikely and Felix’s reaction to the post also suggests he wouldn’t be keen on the move.

In response to an edited image of him in a Newcastle shirt, he replied: “É só sabichões! [It’s just know-it-alls]”

Despite the return of Champions League football, Magpies’ head coach Eddie Howe has played down superstar signings and plans to stick with the same transfer policy that has seen the club rise from relegation candidates to top four since the Public Investment Fund, PCP Partners and RB Sports & Media took over in October 2021.

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