Fenerbahce come close with audacious swoop for Diego Costa

The transfer windows in England and in most European leagues have been shut for almost a week now, but the window in Turkey is still open until tomorrow (Friday), so they can buy and register new players until then. Normally we wouldn’t care too much, but this season, a few players currently registered with Chelsea have been linked with a move to the Super Lig, including left backs Baba Rahman (who currently isn’t registered to play in the Premier League) and Kenedy (who is), as well as the summer’s Drama King, Diego Costa. While any movement at this point would be surprising, especially for Kenedy, you never truly know in Silly Season Extra Time.

That said, Fenerbahce’s interest was very real, at least in their own minds, and with 24 hours still to go, they could try their luck still.

Would Costa, whose whereabouts seem to be a bit of mystery these days (is he still in Brazil? is he back in London? Spain? somewhere else?), consider a move to Turkey? Only he could answer that question authoritatively.

“A transfer deal was very close. I don’t know if anything has changed but things were going very well.

“Things aren’t looking that promising but you never know what could happen at the last minute. We are still in talks.”

-Aykut Kocaman, Fenerbhace manager; source: Turkish Football

Some reports had gone as far as to claim that Costa was in the Turkish capital earlier today to take his medical with Fener, but as much fun as it would be to see Costa and Martin Skrtel on the same team, that sounds like nothing more than idle speculation and fabrication.

For now, the most likely outcome for Costa remains an eventual sale to Atletico, with the striker limited to training and staying fit until Atletico’s transfer ban is over in January.