Kyle Walker and Joao Felix arrived just a few days apart in the winter transfer window, and yet the represent two sides of the same mercato.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport reports, they are different in age, they are different in role, they are different in the formula with which they were acquired, and their respective destinies will also be different.
Walker and Joao Felix have been at Milan for a month and a half, having joined during the transfer campaign that the management carried out with the aim of keeping Milan involved in the present Champions League and to qualify for the next one.
The verdict regarding the former was a bloody one: a 2-1 aggregate loss to Feyenoord. Meanwhile, the Rossoneri are six points off fourth place. Even if we are still in mid-March, with two months to play, the decisions on Walker and Felix seem to have already been made.
Kyle Walker
The decisions are easy to guess. Walker will continue in red and black, thanks to a list of qualities that are difficult to find all together in the – small – sum to be paid to sign him permanently, which is €5m.
The English full-back has just joined his national team for the World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia. In January, Milan requested and an option to buy because there were doubts about his age and his physical condition.
Of course Walker will naturally lose a bit of his ridiculous pace, yet he is showing that he can be a reliable and obviously experienced player, one who has lined up 18 winners’ medals on the shelf in his living room and who will soon reach 100 appearances with the Three Lions.
His experience has allowed him to immerse himself in the chaos at Milan without making a drama, right from the first game. Kyle assures those close to him that he is happy at the club, and hopes to be bought.
Joao Felix
The story is very different for the Portuguese playmaker. After a bright start and a goal on debut against Roma, someone ‘must have pulled the plug’ because the beacon of light that he promised to bring went out.
With goals, assists and no look passes, Joao had the power to revitalise a depressed crowd in his first two or three games. He had succeeded together with Santiago Gimenez, yet it was a flame extinguished too soon.
Chelsea let him leave for Milan on a dry loan, and will welcome him back in June. The first indications about the idea of discussing a permanent deal with the Blues – brought on after his great start – have now burst like a soap bubble.
This is also because in the summer signing him permanently – based on how much Chelsea paid for him – would cost over €40m, which Milan will use in another way. Felix is a profile particularly appreciated especially by Sergio Conceiçao, bit he too is very likely to leave.
Get rid of them both
Walker has been fairly solid. A few instances that were not great, but still an upgrade on Calabria. I agree on Felix. He has not been good enough. A misfiring forward line does not help.
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Not really, his touch let’s him down a lot putting him in not so good positions or losing it completely. He also loses focus a lot, which isn’t very good for a defender. He was also supposedly brought in for his attacking qualities, but has shown very little of it bar a few crosses. He hasn’t been an upgrade besides on royal and that’s fairly easy to do, we should have kept calabria in my opinion.
Idk if they don’t realize this, but nobody cares if he’s a profile conceicao likes. He’s been a passenger every game. Nobody is paying 40+ mil for 1 goal contribution per 90 days
It’s just not the lack of g/a, it’s how he doesn’t improve the team connecting passes or breaking lines. He’s a passenger. There are plenty of players that don’t score but make their team more dangerous.
Felix is just the most overrated football player ever.
I keep saying this and I’ll say it again, there’s no way Chelsea are getting close to €40m for João and they know it. And with no place whatsoever for him in their side, I bet they’d bite on a reasonable purchase offer rather than just eating his wages or looking for another low-priced loan.