Chelsea are not the luckiest when it comes to forwards. Take Fernando Torres inter alia for example. He used to feature regularly among the top 5 footballers of the world till his infamous move to the Stamford Bridge. Mateja Kezman, Hernan Crespo (arguably), Andriy Shevchenko to name a few of the moves that have failed to live up to the billing.
The void left after Didier Drogba moved to the Chinese league and eventually to Galatasaray was too big to be filled even by him when he was brought back by Mourinho in 2014 which would result in an eventual league win.
The same season saw the acquisition of Diego Costa, the marauding forward from Atletico Madrid whose reputation preceded himself. Living up to his name, he lit up the Premier League with goals and controversy in equal measure. Mourinho had found his physical manifestation on the pitch.
It all went south after the highs of the league win in 2014-15, as the following season Chelsea briefly flirted with relegation, and the Costa-Mourinho relationship came to a head when the player threw his training bib at his manager in a game against Tottenham, where he remained as an unused sub.
Amid “palpable discord” and cries of his work being betrayed, Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea a second time and Guus Hiddink was brought in to steady the ship.
Under Antonio Conte, though the world got to see an entirely different Costa. RESTRAINED MADNESS – these two words could perfectly encapsulate Diego Costa as a player.
The player for all his notoriety never received a red card for Chelsea and only once for Atletico. The Brazilian-born seems to instinctively know the line not to be crossed and while forever threatening to cross it, remains firmly entrenched on the good side of it.
Conte, unlike Mourinho, tried to harness the restraint as opposed to the madness that threatened to come to the fore in January with the player being linked with a big money move with the Chinese club Tianjin. Antonio Conte prefers to “kill a player” rather than let him create disruptions in the team and as news of a training bust-up between Costa and the fitness coach Carlos Lalin spread, Costa wasn’t included for Chelsea’s away trip at Leicester.
Surprising as it was, when Diego Costa divulged details of the infamous text to the Spanish press, to the discernible audience it wasn’t hard to see why the Italian didn’t want Costa at Chelsea next season.
Scoring 20 goals in a season is no mean feat and Diego Costa, or ‘the Guv’nor’ as he is fondly called, was one of the main cogs in Chelsea’s title charge last season. Post-January, his abilities seemed to decline by the game. In the FA Cup final against Arsenal, attacks went to his feet to die.
Make no mistake, Costa would be a huge loss to Chelsea. He wasn’t solely a goal scoring threat. When on song, his ability to hold up the ball, run between channels are second to none. Qualities that he would showcase at Atletico again as Chelsea look to replace him with another player of the Drogba mould with a soft corner for Chelsea, Romelu Lukaku.
After initially being reported that he preferred Alvaro Morata, having reserved an interest in the player since when he signed him for Juventus, and/or Andrea Belotti, the 23-year-old Italian juggernaut scoring for fun at Torino, the Chelsea manager seems to have finally made up his mind and has reportedly told Abramovich to sign Lukaku at any cost.
The 24-year old Belgian with an imposing physique is deemed perfect by Conte for his brand of play, either as the focal point of the attack heading a 3-4-3, or part of a front two in a 3-5-2. With Chelsea baulking at the asking price of £100m, it is down to Marina Granovskaia to try and bring down the price. As Manchester United are also interested in the player, a bidding war could ensue.
