Chelsea is not the 'perfect place to shine' for Joao Felix – £45.5m man shouldn't even be in the Blues' best XI after bombing in La Liga
GOALThe Portuguese forward may be excited to be back at Stamford Bridge, but there is a real danger his 'homecoming' will quickly turn sour
"After two loans, Chelsea and Barcelona, I needed to stay permanently in one place," Joao Felix told Chelsea's official website after completing his £45.5 million ($59m) switch from Atletico Madrid on Wednesday. "There is no better place for me to be than Chelsea. I see a perfect place to shine. It was a little bit of a lot of things that made me want to come back: the project, the club, the league, the fans, the time I spent here that I loved. I’m really happy to be back."
Felix sincerely feels that he has found his “forever home” after enduring five challenging years in La Liga. He also made a promise that his “peak years are yet to come”, although he did not acknowledge his significant underperformance since his €126m (£107m/$140m) transfer from Benfica to Atletico in 2019.
Clearly he hasn't paid much attention to what's been going on behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge this summer. The Chelsea "project" he is buying into looks like a complete mess. Todd Boehly and the Clearlake Capital group's reckless spending has been akin to a group of kids who have stumbled onto a briefcase full of cash; they don't seem to have any grasp of what it takes to build a successful club, or have any consideration for long-time traditions and the fans who follow the team up and down the country.
New head coach Enzo Maresca is now working with an over-inflated squad because of that misguided approach, packed with a total of 42 players after Felix's arrival. Competition for attacking places is especially fierce, and it's difficult to see how the 24-year-old fits in given he hasn't proven mentally or physically ready to deliver consistently at the highest level.
