catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
I do wonder if there is a little more to the Costa stories than people first credited (i.e. no chance).
It initially looked at if Koeman was just answering in his usual honest way, that he'd love him but it's fanciful. He keeps making reference to him though, and it now looks as if he is courting him.
Much will come down to how much Chelsea want him out of the dressing room, how willing they are to concede to Athletico's demands and how far they see us as a potential challenger. If they feel we are still a bit off, but giving us Costa for a year may do some damage to their title rivals in makes perfect sense.
It's hard to see Conte wanting to keep Costa, maybe someone at the club softens to him and tells Conte he has to use him until January. Likewise Chelsea may look to prove a point with Athletico of not being bullied. This is quite central to how Chelsea operate now, looking to move players on for big fees in a lot of cases to China. If they allow Athletico to come in and low ball them it will not sit well and be a major glitch in their transfer model, as other clubs will see how they operate. While our offer will only likely be a loan, it would be seen as a much stronger move to take a big loan fee that we are likely to offer and display to clubs they won't be negotiated down.
I genuinely hope so. There's a lot of cliches about "final pieces of jigsaw" but in Costa it would feel apt. It would round off what would have been a very decent window for us. I also think it would make us competitive with any side in the league in a given game. Costa and Rooney are big personalities that have thus far been missing, with the return of Besic, we'd also have a lot of snide in the team. Ultimately thats why I suspect it won't go through. In truth though I'd be quite happy to put all eggs in the Costa basket, and if it fails use Calvert Lewin than settle for most of the other names mentioned.
It initially looked at if Koeman was just answering in his usual honest way, that he'd love him but it's fanciful. He keeps making reference to him though, and it now looks as if he is courting him.
Much will come down to how much Chelsea want him out of the dressing room, how willing they are to concede to Athletico's demands and how far they see us as a potential challenger. If they feel we are still a bit off, but giving us Costa for a year may do some damage to their title rivals in makes perfect sense.
It's hard to see Conte wanting to keep Costa, maybe someone at the club softens to him and tells Conte he has to use him until January. Likewise Chelsea may look to prove a point with Athletico of not being bullied. This is quite central to how Chelsea operate now, looking to move players on for big fees in a lot of cases to China. If they allow Athletico to come in and low ball them it will not sit well and be a major glitch in their transfer model, as other clubs will see how they operate. While our offer will only likely be a loan, it would be seen as a much stronger move to take a big loan fee that we are likely to offer and display to clubs they won't be negotiated down.
I genuinely hope so. There's a lot of cliches about "final pieces of jigsaw" but in Costa it would feel apt. It would round off what would have been a very decent window for us. I also think it would make us competitive with any side in the league in a given game. Costa and Rooney are big personalities that have thus far been missing, with the return of Besic, we'd also have a lot of snide in the team. Ultimately thats why I suspect it won't go through. In truth though I'd be quite happy to put all eggs in the Costa basket, and if it fails use Calvert Lewin than settle for most of the other names mentioned.
