Tianjin Quanjian release statement denying Diego Costa agreement

Is it happening? Maybe it’s not happening. At least not yet.

Following several hints this week of an agreement between Diego Costa and Tianjin Quanjian — the same Tianjin who reportedly bid €85m for Costa in January (which Chelsea rejected) and have since repeatedly talked about their ongoing aim to sign a world-class striker this summer — the Chinese Super League club released an official statement today denying any such thing.

“Regarding the widespread rumour that Chelsea FC's Diego Costa is close to joining Tianjin Quanjian FC, our club want to make clear that at this point, we have not been communicating with Costa regarding the transfer.”

-source: Star

Technicalities aside — communications “at this moment” probably would be with Costa’s agent, Jorge Mendes, instead of Costa himself — this sounds like a pretty firm denial from Tianjin’s side. Their chairman has been insisting that they’ve reached agreements over personal terms (but not transfer fees) with “two or three” targets from a group of big-name strikers including Costa, Cavani, Falcao, Aubameyang, etc, but it would appear that at least “at this moment”, Costa is not one of those “two or three”.

Or maybe he is. That would at least make sense. Now, who knows what to think.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯