COULD COSTA LAST LONGER THAN CONTE?

Champions order rebel striker back to London as manager feels the heat Fallout from the interview that stunned the world of football...

CHELSEA have issued Diego Costa with orders to return to London as soon as possible, train, get match-fit and put himself in contention for the first team.

This four-point demand is the first hint of a route back into the fold for Costa, even if it locks him on a collision course with manager Antonio Conte.

The bond between Conte and Costa was broken by the manager’s text in June to inform last season’s 20-goal top scorer he was not part of his plans.

Conte claimed the decision was made in January when Costa had been hankering after a move to China and was dropped from the team after a clash with fitness coach Julio Tous. The 28-year-old striker has since decided he would rather return to Atletico Madrid, but the clubs are not close to an agreement.

Talks have stalled and Costa’s lawyers want him released on a free transfer because his contract has been breached by Conte’s message. For Chelsea, who value the Spain international at more than £60million, losing him for nothing in a legal wrangle is a staggering prospect.

Costa was given permission to report a week late for pre-season training as the club negotiated with Atletico. He was then omitted from a tour of China and Singapore, but hopes of a swift resolution soon disappeared.

Costa is in his home town of Lagarto in Brazil and, in an exclusive Sportsmail interview, published yesterday, he claimed Chelsea were treating him like a criminal. He vowed to continue training alone in South America rather than report back to work with the reserves in Surrey with no prospect of playing. ‘That seems a very bad and ugly life,’ said Costa. ‘It doesn’t respect what I have done for the club.’

Chelsea, however, are not prepared to let Costa languish on the other side of the Atlantic when he has two years left on a £180,000-a-week contract and they are short of players.

The case of Carlos Tevez and an Italian manager at Manchester City has been mentioned at Stamford Bridge. Tevez was exiled by Roberto Mancini after refusing to come on as a substitute in a Champions League match against Bayern Munich in September 2011.

Mancini, furious with the lack of respect shown to his leadership, was adamant that the Argentine had to go, but after a cooling-off period there was an apology and a return to City.

Tevez was soon back in the team and the pair survived another season together before both departing in 2013. The idea of having Costa back in Chelsea blue will have huge appeal to fans and some players at Stamford Bridge as he is a popular figure in the dressing room.

Attempts to coax him back, however, are laced with belated good sense and legal posturing. Chelsea will be keen to make clear Costa has not been denied the chance to do his job as a footballer and there is always a route back into the team. They will also be trying to stir Atletico.

The transfer window closes two weeks on Thursday but the Spanish club are under no time pressure because they are banned by FIFA from registering any new players until the end of the year.

Atletico, like Costa, are content to play a waiting game but there is logic to ensuring a move is completed before January. At least he could train with Diego Simeone and future team-mates and be closer to Spain manager Julen Lopetegui, who he must impress if he is to play at the World Cup next summer. Exactly what Conte (left), already bristling at not getting everything his way, will make of a returning Costa is another matter. Thus far, he has refused to discuss the issue in public, other than to say his decision was made in January and that Costa has been aware of the position since then. When Conte texted Costa in June, he was in a position of tremendous personal strength after a magnificent debut season in the Premier League. He had transformed the team, won the title and made it to the FA Cup final.

A new four-year contract was on the table and there was the promise of a major recruitment drive to build a squad capable of challenging in the Champions League. Two months on and Conte’s status has been radically altered. Recruitment did not go to plan, top targets escaped and the four-year deal became a twoyear deal as tensions increased.

Form in pre- season was poor and the champions started the Premier League campaign with a 3-2 home defeat by Burnley.

Chelsea finished the game with nine men, adding to a feeling of disarray with echoes of 2015 when the title defence went awry under Jose Mourinho. Last month, Conte said he feared a repeat of ‘the Mourinho season’ and could be sacked.

His reservations about the strength of his squad were compounded by the sale of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United.

With Roman Abramovich’s fondness for change and Conte’s propensity to storm off in a huff, focus will sharpen on the manager’s position if harmony cannot be restored. He is the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next manager to leave.

His contract runs until 2019 — the same as Costa’s — and while no- one expects the striker to outlast Conte, anything can happen at Stamford Bridge.