Despite the controversy of his departure, Chelsea fans should be relieved that Antonio Conte got rid of former striker Diego Costa. Make no mistake, the Spaniard is a talented player but he has serious attitude problems and does not seem to learn from his mistakes.
In a similar way to Italian striker Mario Balotelli, Costa could have probably achieved more during his career if he learnt from his mistakes and was less arrogant. Following behaviour problems, former Chelsea boss Conte decided to get rid of Costa ahead of the 2017-18 season. The Brazilian was frozen out of the Blues’ plans and ended up returning to former club Atletico Madrid in January 2018. He could not move to Atleti during the summer of 2017 as the La Liga club were facing a transfer ban at the time.
Costa will not play for Atleti again this season after he made very disturbing comments about the mother of referee Gil Marzano during his side’s recent defeat against Barcelona. After damning footage against the striker emerged, he was slapped with an eight-match ban. The ban is for two separate offences. Costa was seen holding Marzano’s arm to prevent him from booking other Atleti players and for abusing the referee. Furthermore, according to AS, Costa faces internal action from Atletico and this has led to him refusing to take part in training.
Costa was reportedly seen at the club’s training ground on Thursday and did not take part in training, in spite of him not being injured. Costa has struggled for form this season and has only scored five goals. Atletico manager Diego Simeone has preferred to utilize Alvaro Morata up front following his arrival from Chelsea on loan in January.
It now looks like Simeone will look to listen to offers for the erratic striker this summer. In lieu of the recent incidents, it can be deduced that Conte did a good thing by deeming Costa surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
