The case of Joao Felix has been a difficult one for Atletico Madrid to handle. Their record signing and anointed as their star for years to come, there is no doubt he has not lived up to expectations for Los Colchoneros. In his fourth season at the club, it appears a separation is more likely than any other outcome.
While Felix performs for Portugal, Diego Simeone has not seen fit to start him since mid-September at club level. Many have framed the debate as one or the other for next season, and while Felix’s departure would be a hard pill to swallow, it seems impossible that Los Rojiblancos would force Simeone out.
For the player too, there is a concern he might be stunting his development. Former Atletico Madrid icon Diego Forlan feels he might be better served by departing.
“João Félix is a very good player, he is young and has a lot of quality. They paid a lot of money for him and he hasn’t been playing as expected, but he’s still very young.”
“News is coming out that talks about the possibility of him leaving Atletico and, if he leaves, he could even increase his performance. I believe in that. It happens many times, it happened, for example, with Philippe Coutinho, who played a few times for Inter and when he went to Liverpool he improved a lot.”
Fichajers.net carried Forlan’s words. Having flitted between Villarreal, Manchester United, Inter and Atleti himself, with varying degrees of success, he should be well aware of the importance of fit.
Coutinho equally works as an example of a player with quality but simply did not fit at Barcelona and increasingly, it seems that Simeone as the coach, Felix does not fit at the Metropolitano.
