Conte: I forgive Costa
Blues boss ends bust-up as striker heads back to Spain
ANTONIO CONTE is ready to bury the hatchet with bad boy striker Diego Costa – days after the striker agreed a return to Atletico Madrid.
The Chelsea boss could come face to face with the Spaniard next week and he insists he’d shake his hand despite their bitter fall-out that resulted in months of mud-slinging.
Costa went AWOL, asked to leave Chelsea three times last season and then went on strike to force a move to Atletico before accusing the club of treating him like a “criminal”.
It became one of the ugliest transfer sagas in Premier League history and Conte was reluctant to offer any sort of praise for Costa despite him helping to win the title last season.
He’s set to complete a move back to La Liga in January, initially on loan before completing a £67million permanent switch in the summer.
But with the Blues facing Atletico in Champions League action on Wednesday Costa is likely to be in attendance at the Metropolitano.
Asked if he would shake his hand, Conte said: “Yeah, I have no problem.
“I’m not interested to talk about the past. The past is not important. For every player, the past stays there. If you did well in the past, okay.
“There’s a lack of respect for my players because Diego is an Atletico player. Don’t forget we won together last season and we want to thank him for his effort with us. Not only last season but in the period that he played for Chelsea.
“But every player was important last season, we won the title, we won the league, maybe it was a big surprise, and also to reach the Final of the FA Cup, every player performed fantastic last season. I want to thank every player who played last season.”
Costa flew into Madrid yesterday insisting he did not bear any grudges as he prepares to complete the switch.
He said: “There’s nothing of the sort there, I’m not upset with anybody. I have no bitterness towards anyone. Everything is cool. Everybody knows how much I love the fans.”
While he attempted to finally ship out La Roja’s bad boy, Conte was quick to talk up his relationship with fellow Spaniard Alvaro Morata.
Signed from Real Madrid in the summer the 24-year-old striker is the antithesis of his compatriot – with Conte joking he’d be happy with his daughter bringing him home.
He said: “He’s a really good guy, a polite person – if you have a daughter you’d be open to have this type of person marry your daughter.
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