Why Aston Villa didn't seal Joao Felix transfer and what the summer holds for Chelsea star
Aston Villa’s interest in Joao Felix has been no secret and the Portuguese could emerge on the club’s transfer radar once again in the summer.
Unai Emery insisted that the club pushed to recruit the 25-year-old in the winter window, but Chelsea were reluctant to let him join a direct competitor for Champions League football. A loan was ruled out, while the Blues slapped a £60m price tag on him to discourage Villa from pushing for his signature.
This wasn’t a case of Felix turning Villa down and it was thought that those close to the player believed Emery was the coach he needed to get his career back on track. Instead, he moved to AC Milan on loan on deadline day.
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Felix made the perfect start for the Rossoneri by bagging on his debut against Roma on Wednesday night. There is, of course, a possibility that he goes on to join the Italian on a permanent basis in the summer, but if he is for sale, Villa would surely take another look at the situation.
They came close to landing him last summer before Chelsea signed him in order to push Conor Gallagher to the Spanish capital in order to bring in pure profit from a sale of a homegrown talent. When Felix first joined Chelsea on loan in January 2023, he wanted to play Champions League football and Villa would have had to pay a huge loan fee to take him from Atletico Madrid.
The reason why Felix didn’t join Villa in the winter was not because he rejected them - Chelsea simply didn’t want to strengthen a rival. Axel Disasi arrived on loan late on after he rejected other offers and made it very clear he wanted to link up with Emery.
Speaking about Felix when Villa tried to sign him on loan two years ago, Emery said: “He’s a special player and it was not totally impossible for us (to sign him), but he wanted to play for a team in the Champions League. We are realistic about how we can improve and how we can add players to improve our squad. He has a high salary and Chelsea paid a lot of money for that.
“I like him, but we were never really in the running for him. He can assist, score goals, drop deep to build up and he can play in the small spaces and drive into the box. He’s special. Our idea is to reduce the distance between them (a club such as Chelsea) and to get closer to them in one, two or three years. Spending money like they did? No! But trying to be consistent and get there another way in our work.”
