With deals in the transfer window picking up, there has reportedly been a new development in Joao Felix's future.
The Portugal international spent the last two seasons on loan at Chelsea and FC Barcelona after falling out of favour with coach Diego Simeone.
The club are seemingly still trying to find a buyer for the attacking midfielder, who cost the Madrid club a reported €127million in 2019.
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Reports in claim that Benfica and Aston Villa are now the favourites to sign the Portuguese midfielder this campaign.
However, Sport have reported that Villa cannot afford Felix's asking price of €60million and are only willing to go as high as €32million.
The report adds that Villa manager Unai Emery has been in constant contact with the player and his representatives, as the situation could change if the club sell Jhon Duran in the coming weeks.
Atletico coach Simeone was asked about the interest in Felix, who has featured for the first team in pre-season.
"Of course, we are always being with the possibility to add players improving our squad in different positions, we have to be ready to do it. But with the players we have now, we can sign one or two players more. It depends if someone is leaving." he said, as per Yahoo News.
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"The idea is that the structure we have now, even the players we have today and the players coming back, I think we have players that will be competitive this year playing in the Champions League and the other cups we will face.
"Some players we are following in case we have the possibility to sign them, but I don't want to speak specifically about players."