Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino may be wondering what might have been if Joao Felix had stayed at Stamford Bridge beyond the end of last season. The Portuguese forward spent the second half of the previous campaign on loan at Chelsea but was unable to find his best form for the Blues.
Felix scored just four goals in all competitions during his short spell in west London, although he was still linked with a permanent switch during the early stages of the summer window. However, no such move ended up materialising before the 23-year-old eventually joined Barcelona on loan until the end of the campaign.
He has since enjoyed a new lease of life with the Catalan giants, scoring three times and grabbing an assist in his first two starts. He bagged an impressive brace in their Champions League group stage opener on Tuesday night as Xavi’s side hit five without reply against Antwerp at home.
Felix certainly looks to have found some confidence at the Nou Camp following a turbulent campaign last time around. He fell out with Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone during the first half of the season, which effectively ended his hopes of playing for them again, before struggling to find his feet at Chelsea after the World Cup.
The forward made no secret of his desire to negotiate a permanent move to Stamford Bridge in spite of his shaky form after growing fond of life in London. However, it quickly became apparent that he was not in Pochettino’s plans before Barcelona eventually came calling.
Chelsea have struggled to impress in front of goal in Felix’s absence, with the Blues having scored just five times in the Premier League so far this season. Things could have seemingly turned out differently if the Portugal striker had stayed, given his imperious form since moving to Barcelona on loan.
That said, whether or not Pochettino would have been able to extract the very best from Felix is another question. He is clearly delighted to be playing for Barcelona after admitting that he took a ‘significant’ wage cut in order to join them, a decision which looks to have paid dividends for the benefit of his career.
“I believed, and still believe, that this is the ideal place for me but the truth is that things are going very, very well and I didn’t expect them to go so well,” said Felix earlier this month.
“Yes, the truth is I gave up a significant amount of money from my salary. But well, I needed to change, I needed to go to a place where I could practice my football and as I said, I always believed that this would be the ideal place. Things are going well and I had to make that effort to have joy playing again.”
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