COSTA SURE ROW WON’T RUIN LEGACY
DIEGO COSTA took a parting shot at his old Chelsea boss Antonio Conte as he landed in Spain last night to sign for Atletico Madrid. Asked if he had got his own way in his battle of wills with Chelsea this summer, that saw him refuse to return to training from Brazil, Costa said: ‘No. I never wanted it to happen this way. ‘I have a special affection for the people at Chelsea. Not for one person am I going to have the image of everything I did there tainted. ‘To a certain extent they also made it easier because they were happy for me to leave.’ Asked what kind of shape he was in after his break in Brazil, Costa said: ‘Normal for someone who has been out of action for three months. I’ve done a little bit of training and I’m not as bad as some people are saying.’ When asked if he was afraid of getting on the scales, he joked: ‘No, I’m not afraid of the scales — just the training.’ Costa is due to appear in front of Atletico supporters at today’s home game against Sevilla. He added: ‘I think it dragged on for too long but in the end there was a happy ending and now I can start to train with my team-mates.’ As Costa moved to the brink of departing, Conte described his replacement, Alvaro Morata, as the kind of person you would want your daughter to marry. On Morata, Conte said: ‘He’s a really good guy. If you have a daughter you’d be open to have this type of person to marry your daughter. A really good guy, a polite person. ‘I know Alvaro well, he’s a really good guy, a good person, and a good signing for Chelsea because Alvaro is only 24 years old. ‘I like him because he’s a complete player and also he has a lot of room to improve in every situation, tactical, physical, technical aspect. ‘He’s very committed, his behaviour is always fantastic. He is a very polite player — I like this — and also I like that he’s a good finisher, he feels the goal in every moment, and always understands which is the best position in the box to receive the ball.’ Glowing praise indeed, but it will be interesting to see if there comes a time when Conte misses the devil in Costa, who put in three transfer requests in a single season but had the ability to cajole a team with his aggression. Conte did say of Costa: ‘I think every single player was important last season. ‘I want to thank every player who played last season. I repeat: I’m not interested to talk about the past. ‘I think the past is not important. For every player, for every single player, the past stays there. If you did well in the past, okay. ‘But don’t forget we won together last season (with Costa). For sure we want to thank him for his effort last season with us. Not only last season but in the period that he played for Chelsea.’