Atlético Madrid have spent €100m on unwanted Chelsea strikers in the last few years, and now neither play for them.
Misfiring Álvaro Morata, who joined Atléti on a complicated €50m loan-to-buy arrangement in January 2019 now plays for Juventus (again) on loan, and as of today, Diego Costa, who went on strike from Chelsea the season prior to force a €50m move (back) to Atlético is now a free agent. That’s €100m spent on 41 goals in all competitions across 5 seasons combined.
Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia may not get every single move right (no one can), but the fact that she managed to extricate these sorts of fees for these two strikers is worthy of all the accolades and praise and admiration.
Acuerdo con @diegocosta para la rescisión de su contrato. Desde el club le deseamos mucha suerte en la próxima etapa de su carrera profesional.
— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) December 29, 2020
ℹ https://t.co/Zgn4EcPGGw
While the “personal reasons” for Costa’s exit have not been disclosed, it is believed that he wants regular playing time. The 32-year-old who has had to deal with multiple injuries in the last few years as well has only made 7 appearances totaling 204 minutes so far this season for the league leaders.
Since Costa is now a free agent, Twitter already wants him back at Chelsea to add some missing “grit” and silly drama back into the squad.
As ... interesting? (and probably ill-advised) ... as that would be, it is much more likely that he joins some other team, perhaps even Arsenal, who are being strongly linked by Spanish media. That would be a bit less amusing, especially if he were to find the sort of motivation and drive that led him to win two Premier League titles in three seasons with us in 2014-15 and 2016-17.
In any case, here’s a bit of Diego nostalgia (which we should let stay nostalgia and not fall into the trap of wanting things long gone). We should be concentrating on finding/developing the next Diego Costa, not try to resurrect the old one.