YOU’RE BARRED
Costa’s Chelsea career over as Conte comes out fighting
DIEGO COSTA will not play for antonio Conte at Chelsea again and has even been barred from joining the firstteam group for training.
AS the champions last night confirmed the signing of alvaro Morata on a fiveyear deal, boss Conte also revealed that his decision to axe Costa from his future plans was made in January.
The striker (left) made it clear at the turn of the year that he wanted a lucrative move to Chinese Super League club Tianjin Quanjian. With Chelsea in the midst of a title fight, they resisted his demands but the manager’s mind was made up and there is no way back.
‘In January, the Costa situation was made very clear,’ said Conte, speaking for the first time since his infamous post- season text-message exchange with the striker.
‘For the club, for him and his agent and for me the situation is closed.’ Costa told
Chelsea he wanted to leave Stamford Bridge three times in 10 months.
The first was during last year’s pre- season tour in the United States when he asked to return to Atletico Madrid, his former club. Conte, who had only just arrived at Chelsea, responded by dropping him from the team for two friendlies.
Then, Costa made it clear he wanted the mega-money move to Tianjin Quanjian in January and, at the end of the season, reiterated his desire to leave.
He may have finished the season as Chelsea’s top scorer with 20 goals but Conte had already decided he had to go.
The text exchange started with a message from the manager to all his first-team players to thank them for their efforts and to remind them to keep in shape during the summer.
Costa responded with an enquiry about the return date for pre-season training which failed to draw any response at all and then tried to call but Conte did not pick up.
When a second message — one packed with emojis — was sent by Costa, the manager texted back to tell him he was not part of his plans for the future.
He is not on the pre-season tour of China and Singapore, having been allowed to extend his summer break in the hope a transfer deal can be struck.
A return to Atletico is the only option but the two clubs have been wrangling over the fee and the details of how and when payments would be made because the Spanish club are serving a transfer ban until the end of the year.
Having missed out on Romelu Lukaku, who opted to join Manchester United for £90m from Everton, Chelsea see Costa’s international team-mate Morata as his replacement. Morata said: ‘I am so happy to be here. It’s an incredible emotion to be part of this big club. I am looking to work hard, score as many goals as I can and to win as many trophies as possible.’
Morata will cost a club-record fee which starts at £58m and could rise to £70m. ‘For sure this transfer market is crazy,’ said Conte. ‘Not only this season, but now if you want to buy a simple player — a normal player — you have to think about spending 40 to 50 million euros. It’s incredible this situation but we must live with it.
‘Lukaku cost a lot of money but the same with [Alex] Lacazette and Arsenal, who spent 65m euros. For a right back you spend 60-70m euros. It means we must be very good and not make a mistake when we buy a player.’
Morata, 24, is expected to join up with the Chelsea squad on the next leg of their tour in Singapore.
‘This is a good signing for us,’ said Conte. ‘Morata is a young player but he has a lot of experience and played in the past with Real Madrid and Juventus in the league and the Champions League.
‘He’s a good striker, a player with the right prospects for Chelsea.’ Chelsea face Arsenal in Beijing today before games against Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in Singapore.
CHELSEA’S Kurt Zouma has joined Stoke City on a seasonlong loan, after the champions tied the France central defender to a new six-year contract. Zouma, 22, has made 71 appearances for the Blues since joining from St Etienne in 2014.