Atletico Madrid’s catastrophic failure in the Champions League looks set to have significant ramifications in the January transfer window.
Atleti are out of European club competitions entirely after finishing bottom of Group B in the Champions League following their 2-1 defeat by Porto on Tuesday night. This is the first time it has happened under Diego Simeone and it leaves the Spanish side in financial difficulties.
Cadena Ser reports that Atleti president Enrique Cerezo will now lead efforts to offload players in the January transfer window so they can refresh Simeone’s squad. The club want to sign a central defender, a midfielder and a right back in January, but cannot do so unless they can sell at least two of four high-value players.
Here Mirror Football takes a look at each of those four players and considers whether they could be destined for the Premier League.
Joao Felix
Reports that Atleti want to sell Felix are nothing new. The Portuguese international became the Spanish club's record signing when he joined from Benfica in a deal worth £113million back in 2019, but he is yet to live up to that fee.
Last month reports emerged that Felix wanted to leave in January after being ‘bullied’ by Simeone – and Manchester United are the most likely destination in the Premier League. United have been linked with the 22-year-old forward before and the potential for a swap deal involving Cristiano Ronaldo remains an attractive prospect.
Felix has 31 goals and 18 assists in 127 games altogether for Atleti and, at 22, fits the bill as the kind of exciting young talent Erik ten Hag could shape.
Thomas Lemar
Lemar is another player who has frequently been linked with a move to the Premier League. The French winger has suffered from injuries over the past few years and his time at Atletico Madrid is definitely nearing its end. His current contract expires in June, meaning he could well be available for a cut-price fee in January.
The 26-year-old was offered to Arsenal back in July, according to L’Equipe, who said that the Gunners, and Everton, both rejected the chance to sign him. Arsenal were originally interested in Lemar before he joined Atletico from Monaco for £65m back in 2018.
His record of nine goals and 18 assists in 152 appearances since that big-money move showed they dodged a bullet four years ago. Might they be tempted to revive their interest again?
Yannick Carrasco
Carrasco is still only 29 years old and might finally move to the Premier League after years of speculation. A likely location is Tottenham, who fit the bill in a few different ways for the versatile Belgium international.
While he is generally a winger, Carrasco has been deployed in a variety of other positions over the years – a characteristic which makes him attractive to Antonio Conte, who loves to field just about everyone at wingback. Conte clearly doesn’t fancy summer signing Djed Spence, while the eye socket injury to Son Heung-min, and the ongoing absence of Dejan Kulusevski, means there is space in the squad for attacking reinforcements.
Conte is always emphasising the need for investment and in Carrasco they might have found the right man, with Atletico Madrid keen to sell.
Rodrigo De Paul
Fans of Leeds United will be more than familiar with De Paul, who was endlessly linked with the club before he left Udinese for Atleti last year. The Argentine midfielder is now well out of Leeds’ league, but does fit the bill elsewhere.
Arsenal appear an interesting proposition, as do Liverpool, who are in need of a top quality midfielder following a spate of injuries and with some of their key players nearing the end of their careers. The loan deal for Arthur Melo in the summer showed Jurgen Klopp was worried about the depth in the middle of the pitch and although in an ideal world they would wait for Jude Bellingham, De Paul represents an intriguing alternative.
The 28-year-old has 43 caps for Argentina and has a good mix of tenacity and style to him which would suit Liverpool’s pressing style.
