“Talent is not enough” – Chelsea signing sent warning by former teammate, hoping he can prove himself

Joao Felix has been warned that talent alone won’t make him a success at Chelsea, something that proved to be the case at Atletico Madrid.

Former Atletico teammate Yannick Carrasco has been speaking about the Portuguese forward to Mais Football as his Chelsea career struggles to get off of the ground.

Felix joined the Blues in a surprising €52m deal this summer as the Blues continued to spend big on Enzo Maresca’s squad.

It is his second spell at the club following a loan spell at Stamford Bridge in the second half of the 2022/23 season.

The forward is hoping to revive his career in England after a difficult few years following his €127.2m move to Atletico in July 2019.

He arrived at the Spanish side as one of the rising stars of Portuguese and indeed European football but failed to live up to that tag at the club managing just 34 goals and 18 assists in 131 games.

That was largely due to him never settling or indeed seeming to find a relationship with Diego Simeone over the years.

Questions have also been raised about the player, though, especially given he failed to set the world alight while on loan at Barcelona last season either.

And Carrasco, who played alongside him at the Wanda Metropolitano, has warned him he needs to show more than talent to succeed, although he does hope that happens at Chelsea.

“Everyone knows in the world of football that he is a player with a lot of talent, he was born with a lot of talent, but you can see that in football sometimes talent is not the most important thing,” he said.

“It is also discipline, being focused, working, and Atleti is not an easy team because there you ask for a lot of effort and not just playing with talent.

“And it may be that with the coach it was a bit difficult, but as you can see that he is a player with a lot of talent, he has always found top teams like Barça, Chelsea, Atleti.

“I wish him all the best and I think he will grow year by year because to get so young in a club as big as Atleti, with a lot of pressure, with a very expensive transfer, it is not easy and now I think that he has improved for months and I hope he does very well in Chelsea and that he can show it to the whole world.”