The Daily Mail go to Brazil, knock on the door and Costa lets them in. They meet the family and get the news that Costa says he will not train with the reserves and is suing Chelsea about his poor treatment. He'll wait out his contract with no pay. He wanted to stay at Chelsea and sign a new contract but Chelsea stalled he says and claims the manager told the club to do so. Chelsea say nothing. We hear media speculation that they will sue Costa for going AWOL. Is the club's silence dignified and we should tacitly understand this, or are they a Swan, serene on the surface and paddling like mad underneath. In the past Chelsea have shown zero tolerance with what they believe are misbehaving players, sacked immediately with no consideration to talent of value. Also they have been headless chickens ala Jose V Eva. Which is it now?
Very difficult to say. Chelsea have managed to improve their public behaviour in the last couple of seasons. They kept very quiet as you say about Eva and Jose. That doesn't mean it was well handled, in fact exactly the opposite. Costa likewise has been handled appalingly. He is a drop kick in my opinion, and good riddance, but Jesus wept, other clubs get rid of/ cut losses/move on players without the grief and name calling this mess has become. Is there a correlation between most Billionaires' behaviour in general, and Chelsea's' actions in particular? When you just click your fingers and get whatever you want, when anything is able to be bought, wives unloaded and replaced, no such things as queues, every restaurant has a table free, I guess it's easy to lose sight of reality. Many of the puzzling things that have happened at Chelsea seem to be due to a lack of concern about repercussions, lack of patience, and not caring if you cut off your nose to spite your face. I am starting to think that Conte is skating on thin ice after his alleged Costa e mail. Seems the sale of Matic to Utd was perhaps just to teach a lesson, as is the problem Conte is having getting the players he wants, as opposed to those Romans "advisors" favour. Conte wanted Lukaku, Utd got him, Conte didn't want Matic sold especially to Utd, but he was, and has already shown how good he is when he does his job, which let's someone with the aggression and skill of Pogba off the leash. In one swoop Utd get the kind of balanced midfield we haven't been able to build for 4 years, and we handed it to them. One thing is certain, nothing at Chelsea is straightforward or easy to understand.
.........football is an entertainment business and I've never failed to be entertained supporting Chelsea. Both on and off the pitch we've always made the national headlines. That's what makes Chelsea the best club in the country as far as I'm concerned. We've also never been out of the top two tiers of English football - no other club can boast that.
This is an absolute mess. I'll be honest I was siding with Costa up until he said he won't come back and train. If the text message was sent before the season started then that's no way to tell a player they aren't needed. However, this is his job. He can't go around making demands and taking holidays whenever he feels like it. He gets paid to be here so needs to start showing some respect to the rest of the players. Atletico aren't going to want him anyway if he's ridiculously out of shape and from the photos I've seen, he is!
