yeah you could be right, wouldnt fancy been in his shoes in Brazil if he does commit to Spain, he'll get dogs abuse, great player though we missed out on him
Stop would be a dream front 3 alright, Hope he sticks with Brazil though he'll have to go back there at some stage
Diego Costa was asked to shun Liverpool's advances - and join Chelsea for more money Spanish writer Fran Guillen explains in his new book ‘Diego Costa: The Art of War’ how the Blues moved to block Liverpool’s attempts to bring Costa to Anfield back in the summer of 2013 “Liverpool were quickest off the mark, offering €25m (£17m) for the Brazilian and triggering the release clause in his contract. However, Jose Mourinho, recently returned to Chelsea, had also identified Costa as a primary target, a Didier Drogba-style centre-forward around whom he could forge a new winning machine. The Portuguese coach had watched Costa since he first arrived at Braga, and had felt the force of the striker during his breakout season close-up as manager of Real Madrid.” “However, Mourinho had yet to persuade the owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, to accelerate his rebuilding plans. In both acquiring new players and moving others on, the process would be gradual. For example, Benfica’s Nemanja Matic, another immediate target for the new manager, would have to wait until January 2014.” “If Costa could not be signed now, a strategy was needed to ensure he was delayed, and not diverted. Chelsea and Mourinho made their case to Costa and Atletico: turn down Liverpool now and we will sign you – for more money – in 12 months.” “Samuel Eto’o was the stop-gap acquisition. Behind the scenes, Costa was lined up for summer 2014, in negotiations aimed at making all parties happy for the season ahead. On August 14, the club renewed Costa’s contract, doubling the salary and extending until June 2018. The release clause also went up, and the understanding was that the new season would be Costa’s last for Los Colchoneros.” http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...sea-for-more-money-a-year-later-10424298.html
Nice easy story for the Standard to produce now, quite possibly true but doesn't really matter. The key problem is we don't have the pulling power under the current regime and without the will to throw extra money at top players to help compensate (for our visible lack of pulling power) and get us into the hunt for them, we're never going to bring them in. If we had put enough money on the table, neither Costa or Atletico would have taken the gamble in the hope that the Chavs would pay more the following year, imho. I suspect if the Chavs can keep Costa fit this season, he'll bring home the title for them in 2015-2016.
How do we put money we don't have on the table? Why would we risk the financial stability of the club? Especially since we nearly lost the club not so long ago.
Could be wrong here but did Liverpool not meet Costa's buy out clause, before he signed a new contract with atletico?
Yes we did. He used our interest to get a better contract from Atletico and he knew with Falcao leaving it was his turn to be the main man and it worked out well for him. He won the league,got to the CL final and got a move to Chelsea on more money than we ever would have paid them. Nobody would have paid him that money at that point,he'd been a backing singer to Falcao and with a 21m buy out clause there wasn't exactly a queue of big clubs banging down the door.
Good man Costa.. you may well cost me points in the fantasy football this weekend,but I'll put up with that if you also cost your club points in the league with this carry on It will be very interesting to see who they can sign this window, as I'd imagine they won't be slow about bringing in a replacement striker given their run for the PL and the liklihood that Costa will be on the way to China, one way or another....
The thing about kicking up a fuss now is January is very short. With him and Payet just ignoring them for 2 weeks will do the job.
Even if Costa ends up staying put he'll more than likely turn back into the Costa of last year and spend the rest of the season running around sulking,not scoring and kicking lumps out of lads.
Thats exactly how I'd see it too mate, hence with the Chavs having experienced that once from him already will know what to expect - so will be more likely to agree to sell him, assuming they can find a suitable replacement this window.
Conte might well just cast him off the reserves, there was talk of them going after Llorente (I think) so that might be Conte's answer, risky game allowing players to challenge anyone at the clubs authority if that is what has happened. Chelsea more than any other club in England have spent years trying to break up a dysfunctional dressing room and are only now having got rid of their manager that was poisoning the club looked to have some bit of harmony about them.
Looks like everythings back to normal with him at Chelsea now. Returned to first team training Tuesday and Sky are reporting that he'll stay if his wages are doubled to £300,000 a week. Greedy bastard but thats what the game has come to these days. No love nor loyalty...money talks.
With all due respect, what loyalty do you expect? He grew up in the slums in Brazil and had never heard of Chelsea until Abromovic put them on the map. It's a job for him, not everyone chooses their employment solely on loyalty and if your career is 15 years long you have to do what you can. Why should he be loyal to Chelsea?
I'd leave my job in a heartbeat if I got an offer of considerably more money somewhere else. My only job satisfaction is getting paid. That's not to say I don't do my job well, I have pride in doing a job right, that's what I'm paid to do. But if I wasn't paid, or had independent means, no fckuing way would I be sitting at my desk monday to friday. And if someone paid me considerably more I would do my work well somewhere else, equally having no interest other than getting paid and hoping the lotto numbers come in. Fcuk work. And I distrust anyone immediately who likes their job. You don't have enough else in your life.
An absolute pr*ck of a chap by all accounts but I'd have him in a heartbeat, you know he'd be missing loads of games with suspensions especially with the extra focus of being a Liverpool player but still worth his place in any team.
I reckon we should try and sign him, but on a deal that's very much weighted towards incentivising him to score goals (I know some complained about how the mancs were paying Ibra....... last season, but simply put - it worked, the fuker scored loads of goals and I reckon Costa would be the same). Then, once he decides he's had enough and switches off, he's not draining us for a massive weekly wage. He's an animal, but we could use one or two of them to help toughen us up a bit...we've far too many lightweights in the squad at the moment, so adding one or two tough fukers might help scare off some opponents for us.