Joao Felix
Villa target... Joao Felix (Image: AC Milan via Getty Images)
There haven't been too many transfer windows in recent memory where Aston Villa haven't been credited with an interest in Portuguese international forward Joao Felix. Currently on the books of Chelsea, Felix has spent the second half of this season in Italy, with AC Milan.
Felix joined Chelsea on loan initially in 2023, at a time when Villa - pushing clear of relegation danger under Unai Emery - weren't able to coax him into joining. Last summer, Chelsea beat Villa - now with Champions League football to offer - to the punch, able to sell Atletico Madrid Conor Gallagher as part of the talks.
Then, in January, with Chelsea already looking to loan Felix out - despite spending £45m on him and giving him a seven-year contract just months earlier - he was allowed to depart for Milan, with both they and Villa in the next round of the Champions League stages.
Villa and Chelsea have done business aplenty in recent times, of course; Ian Maatsen and Omari Kellyman swapped places last summer and Axel Disasi joined Villa late in the January transfer window on a loan basis - but will they touch base again this summer?
Villa's president of football operations Monchi confirmed in the winter transfer window that Felix and Marco Asensio - the latter who Villa did eventually seal the loan signing of - were both players who were very much on Villa's list of ideal transfer targets and confirmed the previous attempts to lure Felix to Villa Park.
"We have tried to bring Felix in all the transfer windows," he told the Spanish media in January, after Villa had sold Jhon Duran to Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League. "We came close last summer but he decided to go to Chelsea in the swap deal that saw [Conor] Gallagher join Atletico Madrid.
"We weren't able to bring him. He has always been a desire. They are not easy operations, one in terms of wages and another in terms of transfer cost. It's not easy but I cannot deny that they [Felix and Marco Asensio] are players that attract Unai."
This summer, with Felix's loan spell at Milan due to be up in the coming weeks and a return to London - at least initially - beckoning, there are suggestions that he will be on the move again. Brazilian side Flamengo have been linked, although there are doubt over whether they have the ability to fund a move. So too have former club Benfica, who banked £113m when selling Felix to Atletico previously.
Villa - who have a call to make on Asensio, who is only on loan but would appear to have little chance of a future at Champions League finalists PSG - could reignite their interest in the event a move for Felix can be done.
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