Diego Costa losing patience over Atlético Madrid switch; Chelsea return on the cards?

Unlike local rivals Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid did not get their transfer ban lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and are thus unable to register new players until January. They managed to work around this predicament on Vitolo, as the former Sevilla winger will play for Las Palmas on loan until December before returning to Atletico to actually start his career there. But despite similar rumors, Atlético have yet to find a solution for Diego Costa, who remains a Chelsea player technically despite his best attempts at forcing a quick transfer out of Stamford Bridge.

Now Spanish newspaper Marca reports that the Spanish-Brazilian striker is losing his patience over Atlético’s lack of effort to make his switch back to Spain happen. Costa apparently feels he’s done all he could — with all his public revelations and quotes about Conte’s text and his own desires to not join any team other than Atletico — and thinks Los Colchoneros have not returned his overtures in kind. If this continues, Diego just might start to seek new destinations. Or maybe even return to Chelsea? According to Marca, Costa was only excused from pre-season until the end of the tour of Asia.

Already it may start to feel like history is repeating itself as Costa should link up with the Chelsea squad at their Cobham training ground this week, following the Blues' Asian tour.

-source: Marca

Marca calls this potential reunion “awkward”, which may be an understatement. Then again, Costa and Conte did manage to work together for most of last season despite similar events last summer (then initiated by Costa himself). Meanwhile, Atleti boss Diego Simeone is playing coy on the whole thing, which is sure to frustrate Costa even more.

“We talk about the players who are here and how the team has been working to keep all the players here. All the players want to stay, they want to achieve even better goals and get even better. Diego Costa? If he comes in January… We can’t say anything about that yet.”

-Diego Simeone; source: Mail

Costa has been chilling back home in Lagarto, Brazil, but has started a bit of training on his own, as evidenced by his Instagram stories. Previous rumors claimed that he would be okay with not playing until January, but more recent rumors have linked him with a temporary (or perhaps longer?) stint at AC Milan. Meanwhile, Chelsea and Atletico remain far apart on a potential transfer fee.

So, Costa’s not playing, does not have solid prospects of playing, and his World Cup prospects are dwindling by the minute. No wonder he’s growing frustrated.