I was a dead man walking when he came back
AS THE COSTA CRISIS GROWS, DAVE BASSETT RECALLS HIS SIMILAR STAND-OFF WITH PIERRE VAN HOOIJDONK . . .
As Chelsea try to coax Diego Costa back to work in london, there lurks a lesson in Premier league history.
Costa has been aWOl in Brazil for a month and told Sportsmail this week he was prepared to sit tight for a year if necessary, paying the fines and training alone until a transfer to atletico Madrid materialises.
antonio Conte does not want him, having lost faith and replaced him with alvaro Morata, but Chelsea have ordered Costa to return, get match-fit and challenge for a place in the first team.
In the Bosman era, corporate minds in the boardroom will eventually turn to money and, in a stand-off such as this, to the tumbling valuation of their player.
Nearly two decades have passed since Pierre van hooijdonk went on strike and refused to return to Nottingham Forest.
Dutch footballers had been quick to latch on to the freedom of movement which followed the Bosman ruling in December 1995 and talk must have been rife during their World Cup camp at France 98.
edgar Davids and Michael Reiziger left ajax for aC Milan on Bosman-inspired free transfers in the summer of 1996 and Patrick Kluivert and Winston Bogarde copied their moves a year later.
By the summer of 1998, Frank and Ronald de Boer were taking ajax to court over their right to break their contracts and sign for Barcelona.
They lost the case but uprising was in the air and the De Boers did get their transfers in 1999.
leeds were circling with an offer of £6.5million and Van hooijdonk seized on Forest’s decision to sell strike partner Kevin Campbell to Trabzonspor in Turkey and failure to invest in the squad as a point of contention.
he lodged a transfer request which was rejected and later claimed to have been promised a move by Forest chairman Irving scholar, who had blocked an approach from PsV eindhoven, six months earlier.
‘sometimes things happen in your life and you look back and realise they could have been handled differently,’ Van hooijdonk told Sportsmail in 2015. ‘I achieved some memorable things in football but in england they always talk about that and it’s a shame.’
he stayed in holland and trained with Breda while Forest manager Dave Bassett, having seen Campbell sold behind his back, lost two strikers who had scored 57 goals between them on the way to winning the league One title (now the Championship).
‘We couldn’t get him back,’ said Bassett. ‘We probably should’ve gone out to see him. But I was having none of it at the time. I thought it was despicable. he was only interested in himself, not the club or his team-mates.
‘We got into a situation where the club was in turmoil. It became political. It was the first time for me I’d known people interfering.
‘since then, there’s even more politics in football and the manag- er’s power has been eroded because the solution to any problem is to replace him with someone else.
‘Players know it and they can get messages upstairs into the boardroom, any old rubbish, saying the manager’s not treating them right, and before you know it they think he’s lost the dressing room.’
When Van hooijdonk did return, in November, following talks with scholar in Monaco, the club were locked in a relegation fight from which they never escaped.
‘ It made things worse,’ said Bassett. ‘I wasn’t having him. I was disgusted with him. They said, “Pierre’s handing you an olive branch”, and I said, “You know where he can shove it”.
‘he was selfish and arrogant and it was disrespectful what he did to Nottingham Forest. I was more or less forced to play him when he came back but there was a stink in the dressing room. some players weren’t having him and he played like a drain, leeds lost interest and we couldn’t get the money.
‘I got sacked and Ron atkinson came in and couldn’t save them either and Forest were relegated and have never been back to the Premier league and Pierre van hooijdonk was sold to Vitesse arnhem for £3.5m. It couldn’t have been messed up better if somebody tried.’
There are clear differences between the cases of Costa and Van hooijdonk but Bassett fears for Chelsea boss antonio Conte if the absent striker is reintegrated.
‘I was a dead man walking,’ said Bassett. ‘I’d won the Championship but I knew I’d get the sack through no fault of my own. somebody had to go.
‘Conte has a great problem if Costa comes back in. If he made it plain in January when Costa decided he wanted to go, then the manager has made his decision.
‘There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s what the manager is there for. But Chelsea needed him out in July. having Costa around until atletico Madrid turn up will drive everybody mad. It will be like a wart on your nose. One or two will sympathise, one or two won’t be having him and others won’t be honest and won’t want to show what side they’re on.’
Conte’s relationship with some players is already under threat because of his decision to exile Costa. ‘I feel for Conte,’ Bassett added. ‘he’s not been supported the way he should have been.
‘The manager is way down the pecking order. There are directors of football and chief executives and heads of recruitment and they’ve all got too much to say and the owners listen to them instead of the man they put in charge.’