Joao Felix: The Ridiculous Amount Chelsea Will Pay for Atletico Madrid Loanee After Red Card

• Quick calculations will show that Chelsea's loan move for Joao Felix was extremely costly
• The club's decision to pay millions for a loanee with no buy-in clause was a surprising one
• To make matters worse, Felix's involvement will be limited after being shown red on debut

Multiple questions were raised when Chelsea forked out 9-million euros, to land Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid on loan until the end of the season.

It was a move that many failed to understand - why would the club pay such a large sum of money without a buy clause at the end of the season? The deal also saw Felix's wage burden shift to Chelsea entirely.

Perhaps from Chelsea's co-controllers' perspective, it was a stop-gap measure to cover for the depleted squad.

Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic joined the ever-increasing injury list, necessitating a couple of moves in the transfer market, as reported by SportsMole.

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In a deal that was already bad for Chelsea on paper, things turned sour on Felix's debut after the striker was given a straight red card at Craven Cottage.

He is now expected to return in a month's time after missing three games for the Blues.

Felix in the Premier League

Chelsea has 20 remaining fixtures in the Premier League, which means Felix can only play in 17 games - if he stays fit and is selected by Graham Potter.

Plus the one he has already played against Fulham, the 23-year-old can only appear in 18 games.

If one takes his £9-million loan fee and divides that by the number of matches he is eligible for, Chelsea will technically be paying Atletico Madrid £500,000 per game.

To put this into context, the best-paid player in the Premier League after Cristiano Ronaldo's exit is Kevin De Bruyne, who earns £400,000 weekly.

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Atletico Madrid will be getting more than that paid to KDB in the EPL for every game Felix plays.

It is worth noting that the loan fee was upfront with no conditions, which means even if Potter leaves the Portuguese star on the bench, the money has already been remitted.

That means the Spanish club wins either way, not like the Antoine Griezmann-Barcelona-Atletico debacle, as reported by the Mirror.

De Bruyne's weekly salary

The figure does become slightly lower if Chelsea progresses further in the Champions League. They are set to face Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16.

If you add the two guaranteed round of 16 fixtures plus the Premier League fixtures, Felix's fee figure is £450,000 per game - which is still more than De Bruyne's weekly salary.

Let's put it into further context: The best-paid player at Atletico Madrid is Jan Oblak, who takes home roughly £300,000 weekly. The Rojiblancos can comfortably use Felix's loan fee to cover Oblak's salary for seven-plus months.

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On top of all this, Chelsea is still paying the loanee's weekly salary of £250,000. If he comes back from suspension and impresses the Chelsea faithful, Todd Boehly and co. will have to part with another ridiculous amount of money to secure his services permanently.

The reason - there is no buy-in clause - which means Atletico can/will put forward an amount and the Blues will either pay up or lose out.

Chelsea miss Marina Granovskaia badly and it shows.

Potter defends Felix

At the same time, Potter's short reign as Chelsea boss went from bad to worse on January 12, after his side went 2-1 down to Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Felix made his debut for the Blues barely 24 hours after sealing a loan move from Atletico Madrid, with the 23-year-old making an instant impact in the first half.

Speaking after the game, Potter defended the new star, but admitted the red card was another blow to the club's lamentable fortunes of late.