For most of those external to Chelsea Football Club, the realization that Diego Costa would inevitably be leaving the team came in May. Internally, this idea became accepted in January, Chelsea FC Manager Antonio Conte revealed today.
“In January, the Costa situation was very clear for the club, for him, and for his agent,” Conte said at a news conference in Shanghai Friday. “For me, the situation is closed.”
Of course, for most of the people closely following Chelsea all season long, this realization also occurred to them during the regular season, as friction between Conte and Costa conflict was occurring in abundance. When Diego Costa revealed in May that Conte sent him a text telling the striker that he was no longer in his plans, it was just the final confirmation.
Conte said today though that the decision was reached, for all involved, back in January when the big money for Costa came in from China. Moving forward though, the future of Diego Costa remains unclear. The Spanish international was excused from Chelsea training by Conte when camp opened this summer. He will be sold this summer, almost certainly to Atletico Madrid, but that situation is complicated by the La Liga club’s current transfer ban.
They cannot sign any new players until the new year.
For Chelsea, they have already moved on and found Costa’s replacement. Having seen Manchester United sign their number one transfer target in Romelu Lukaku, Stamford Bridge went out and signed a United target, Alvaro Morata.
“He’s a good striker. He’s a player with the right prospect for Chelsea,” said Conte of Morata on Friday.
“He’s very young, and for sure he can improve a lot. We hope he will show his value with us.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
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