Crazy that we could even make money on him, absolutely mental.

I’m gutted it didn’t work out for him here but I’ll definitely take the money. I wonder if they will give us 40m for Sterling too? 🤣

So is this potentially a good deal for us and everyone involved did a good job OR is it just a Saudi bailout and we got lucky?

19 minutes ago, evissy said:

So is this potentially a good deal for us and everyone involved did a good job OR is it just a Saudi bailout and we got lucky?

Definitely a Jorge Mendes & Saudi bailout. No other big club would have come in for Felix anymore after the season he's had. Think this was the case last summer as well when Atletico had no plans to include him in the squad and Felix was coming after two underwhelming seasons on loan at Chelsea and Barcelona, but somehow we came to the rescue and "helped" Mendes move his client. Now he was due one.

Judging by the numbers, Felix was brought here for 45M on a seven year contract and loaned to Milan for 5M, which means most of the amortization money for his first season here was covered by Milan. Now if Felix goes to Al Nassr for anything over 40M, we're actually making a small profit in the financial books which I never thought it would happen this summer. I wrote in this thread some pages ago that it was impossible we recoup our money unless a Saudi club comes to the rescue.

He has a good agent for transfers but clearly a bad one for his career as a footballer.

Fantastic for all parties involved.

We can record a ‘profit’ whilst also moving on another player for European FFP purposes.

Felix can go to a less demanding league on some massive wages and hopefully convince the world his talent still exists.

Saudi can claim another ‘Huge signing’ that’s actually not close to retirement due to his name recognition.

Agreed. Deal makes sense all round.

To get this useless, bone idle c*nt off the books will be fantastic.

Saudi to the rescue again. Throw in Sterling too.

Saudi have spent more money on us than on Newcastle

I wonder if Saudi was always sniffing around this one, without making a firm enquiry. This is why we didn’t want to let him go to Benfica without a significant sell on or retaining some % in him. Benfica maybe trying to take a risk free swing knowing the Saudi safety net was there and a 1 season flip would be possible who knows.

So much speculation flying around but if we can get him straight to Saudi for that money I think everyone would be over the moon.

9 minutes ago, C3blue said:

I wonder if Saudi was always sniffing around this one, without making a firm enquiry. This is why we didn’t want to let him go to Benfica without a significant sell on or retaining some % in him. Benfica maybe trying to take a risk free swing knowing the Saudi safety net was there and a 1 season flip would be possible who knows.

So much speculation flying around but if we can get him straight to Saudi for that money I think everyone would be over the moon.

My guess is Benfica was used by Mendes in setting a fair price on the market. In their last raport, I think UEFA warned us (and Villa) over some inflated fees on our deals, so to now sell Felix for over 40M after he's been dog turd for the past years, with not a single other club interested, would have raised some more questions.

“The Al-Nassr package to Chelsea is around £48m and all parties optimistic the deal will get done.” @benjacobs

Honestly, it’s almost as good as winning the World Cup.

I always thought the Al-Nassr was top top team 🤣

The same with the Saudi league really good league with top teams 😉😉

57 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Saudi to the rescue again. Throw in Sterling too.

We probably tried but the Saudis said the deal would only be £30m if we threw in Sterling.

6 minutes ago, C3blue said:

I wonder if Saudi was always sniffing around this one, without making a firm enquiry. This is why we didn’t want to let him go to Benfica without a significant sell on or retaining some % in him. Benfica maybe trying to take a risk free swing knowing the Saudi safety net was there and a 1 season flip would be possible who knows.

So much speculation flying around but if we can get him straight to Saudi for that money I think everyone would be over the moon.

Saudi (specifically Al-Nassr) were always going to be in the background because they have the same transfer policy as Wolves ie. whomever Jorge Mendes wants to flog.

The Felix deal has likely put Mendes' relationship with Chelsea in strife and he would have been under pressure to make a deal this season. The only issue would have been convincing Felix.

32 minutes ago, petre ispirescu said:

My guess is Benfica was used by Mendes in setting a fair price on the market. In their last raport, I think UEFA warned us (and Villa) over some inflated fees on our deals, so to now sell Felix for over 40M after he's been dog turd for the past years, with not a single other club interested, would have raised some more questions.

UEFA have no ability to determine fair market value on transfer fees. Their warning is just bluster.

56 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Saudi (specifically Al-Nassr) were always going to be in the background because they have the same transfer policy as Wolves ie. whomever Jorge Mendes wants to flog.

The Felix deal has likely put Mendes' relationship with Chelsea in strife and he would have been under pressure to make a deal this season. The only issue would have been convincing Felix.

UEFA have no ability to determine fair market value on transfer fees. Their warning is just bluster.

Plus Al Nassr's new CEO is Jose Semedo (former Sheffield Wednesday player), one of Mendes' good friends. He was appointed just over a week ago.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out

what a strange story he’s been

I noted the “hefty” sell on fee. Clearly, the agent has him lined up for a move soon and has promised Chelsea a deal.

The Sheikhs do like their ponies don't they.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

what a strange story he’s been

Yep. I wanted him to do well for us - appreciated that he took a pay cut to join us. Appreciated that he wanted to come back to the club after his first spell. That sending off was so bizarre!?!?! strange days. But he wanted to be at the club and he wanted to do well for us (which is not always the case with some players). I thought Maresca might have given him more playing time, used him more as a sub - especially ahead of the likes of KDH (we are not going to recoup money on KDH). But that never really happened. He never really got a consistent run of games for us.

Felix is a bit of enigma, obviously at one point he was considered to be one of the best prospects in the game and now after us, Barca and Milan he clearly is not one of the best prospects in the game. I wonder what went wrong for this lad? That said, he just joined a club for fifty million, so it is hard to feel sorry for the lad.

I wish him well. We never really had any need for him in our squad.

4 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

My guess is Benfica was used by Mendes in setting a fair price on the market. In their last raport, I think UEFA warned us (and Villa) over some inflated fees on our deals, so to now sell Felix for over 40M after he's been dog turd for the past years, with not a single other club interested, would have raised some more questions.

UEFA said they focused on certain transfers , it is assumed when Villa sold Kellyman to us and we sold Mattensen to Villa those two transfers would be adjusted . But we have absolutely no idea how ours and Villas FFP submissions were impacted or indeed if say in the case of Kellyman if UEFa was only worth £10 million did they amend both the buying and selling clubs submissions?

Eddie Howe said something today which I thought was relevant when he made the point that a significant amount goes on behind closed doors so Joe Public isn’t anywhere close to knowing all the facts. Hence when you say no other club was interested not sure that can be said with certainty.

If we rely on Transfermarket they say he, Felix, cost €52 million ( that I would guess included add ons that almost certainly weren’t met) Meanwhile Sky say he cost £36.7 million with£3.3 million in add ons. For ease and for illustration I will use Skys

Felix signed a 7 year deal and we received £4.3 million fee in respect of his AC loan.

If the fee is indeed €30m or £26.2m add the loan fee was £4.3 = £ 30.5.

Put to one side his wage then we would in cash. re transfer terms Chelsea would be about £6 million down which, is very very close to his book value which if you use his amortised sum which is £5.2 million pa.

He should never have been signed but he was! In terms of damage limitation the smart bit will to minimise the financial damage and most won’t be able to get past the s loss which will be at least £10ish million.

With so much additional sums to be available as ad£ ons I guess some will be easy to obtain

Not the best signing ever that’s for sure.

Looks like both clubs and Joao have all agreed this, and we've structure a deal to make sure we get 50mill euros.

So that is 1 player we are desperate to sell almost out the door. That leaves Disasi, Carney, Chilwell, Veiga and Sterling as players we have no intention to use if we cannot shift them.

Then there is also Nkunku, Jackson and KDH who we will keep involved in the squad IF we don't get the right offer.

Leeds looked at Chilwell deal and Fulham KDH but fee (both) and wages (just Ben) seems to have sent them to other targets

5 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Saudi to the rescue again. Throw in Sterling too.

Unfortunately I think Sterling is just set against moving abroad