Manager admits he could sell 23-year-old Newcastle target if big money bid comes in

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Diego Simeone has suggested that it Atletico Madrid will only sell Newcastle United target Joao Felix if the deal is right for the club.

Portuguese forward Joao Felix and Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone are not on the best of terms and it was believed at one point that the club was not big enough for the both of them. That resulted in Joao Felix moving on loan to Chelsea for the second half of the season.

Now the season is over, Chelsea have opted not to take Felix on a permanent deal and the 23-year-old is returning to his parent club.

Atletico want Felix gone but they will not bullied on price

Newcastle are looking at Felix as a potential signing this summer but Fabrizio Romano has tweeted a quote from Simeone that heavily suggests that, even though he wants Felix to leave, the club won’t be cutting their losses to make it happen.

“Bids for Joao Felix?” Simeone said. “We’ve to see if the proposal will be good financially for the club, that is crucial.”

Newcastle might have been hoping to take advantage of the situation between player and manager in order to drive down the price of the player who cost Atletico £100million in 2019.

Chelsea had to pay £10million just to loan him for half a season, so it’s clear that his club have a high valuation of Felix and will be looking to recoup as much as they can this summer.

Newcastle are said to want a statement signing this summer

That could price Newcastle out of a move this summer. There has been no transfer kitty publicly revealed by the club, but the thinking is that the Magpies will be pragmatic in their approach as they need to build a deeper squad as opposed to adding superstars for huge sums.

However, there’s also a feeling that the club will want to make at least one statement signing this summer and Felix definitely fits that bill and he’s clearly available, it all just depends on the figures. A move would likely delight captain Kieran Trippier too who has called Felix a ‘special‘ player.

I’d love to see Felix at Newcastle. He was £100million for a reason, and while it never really clicked for him at Chelsea, he didn’t look out of his depth in the Premier League, he just found himself in an absolute mess of a club.