Must be at least a few somewhere.

Still think he'll go closer for to £100m than £60m next summer.

Mustafi for 35m. Loan+buying is an option as well.

That whole thing makes no sense- a week after he was in our starting lineup. I would be very interested to know what the fuxk happened there...

Wonder if the deal would have gone through if we didnt get stuffed by Plop that weekend

With the system we're playing there's easily room for both. People just assumed we'd play 433 with the Matic signing and Herrera's form last season but mourinho has generally favoured a forward facing triangle.

Piethighgorean theorem guy

You can only sell someone to China or America if they are prepared to go there.

Here's a bit of a strange one

Maybe they want another div1 club w a solid manager a'la Pozzos

That's a bit of a surprise...wouldn't have thought he'd be on the best terms with the owners.

That's why they've sent him to what looks like the arse end of Belgium. It's the footballing equivalent of a shift on the Night's Watch.

lol

You could say he has been ostrichcized

He tried to force a move to China in the January window. Can’t have changed his mind that much. Nothing a bit of hint hint nudge nudge money wouldn’t solve.

If Chelsea didn’t have any leverage at all then Atletico wouldn’t have had to pay as much as they did. Seems pretty incredible they can get that amount for a player whose refusing to play and only wants to go to one club. Surely it would have been for WAY less if they had no choice?

But the situation in China has changed (importing foreigners is now much harder) and he may prefer Spain if Atletico are interested (not sure if they were previously). If that's the case, he'll probably happily tell Chelsea that it is Madrid or nowhere, in which case Chelsea are effectively negotiating with one party.

They are negotiating with one party.

As the fee is so high I'm saying they had leverage because they are able to say 'look we want x for him or he's staying' - PL clubs are now able to say 'Nope, we want X or the player isn't for sale.' This isn't just oil clubs it's now filtering through everyone. WBA are turning down big offers. Saints too.

If it's a case of he must be sold yesterday and it must be to Atletico no one else.
They not only get a discount on the price that he'd be to another club but it'd be significantly lower than the £57m they paying for him.

They have massively pissed the bloke off (text message from Conte "thx m8, don't need u next yr, soz") so you have to question his value to them next season. They're better of taking the money and saving his wages.

Chelseas negotiators must be as good as Atleticos are bad then...

reckon this happened:

chelsea: we want £57m
afletico: lol nah, he only has 2 years left, will walk for nothing if you dont sell and we're the only buyer in town. £40m
chelsea: dont care m8, £57m
afletico: ? lol you're gonna end up with nothing if you're not careful. £42m, deal?
chelsea: £57m
afletico: £45m final offer, or you can just get nothing instead in a couple years
chelsea: £57m
(some time passes)
afletico: £50m?
(more times passes)
afletico: ok £57m

once afletico decide that chelsea's threat to shove him in the reserves for 2 years is real its a no brainer to pay the money i think. he's the best striker they can hope to sign, not buying now means they miss out on his next couple years where he'll be in his prime (according to his passport..) and they gonna need someone to replace greiz if they gonna fill that new stadium. ultimately he's, what, a top 10 striker itw? and 57m aint what it used to be. plus remember that signing him in 2 years for 'free' doesn't save them the whole £57m, it saves them some % of £57m for long-winded reasons

cliffs: i think abro's believable threat to lose money resulted in more money

btw there's a metagame (for want of a better word) reason for abro to be like well if they dont give us what we want you can go sit on a beach and not get paid, same as city with tevez: serves as a fairly powerful disincentive to other chelsea/city players who might be thinking of trying similar shenanigans to force a move

Fading OX and effectively swap a guy sunbathing on the brazilian beach for morata, i think we're near the definition of a dream summer

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Pretty much. Chelsea stance of pay us or **** off was key.

top post.

Thing is, even with £57m being peanuts these days, between Costa's surely massive wages and the fact that he could die on the pitch of old age any second, there must be a better investment opportunity for Atletico. Especially since its not like Real and Barca are in shambles and this is a must win opportunity. Why push all in now when RM have their best team since ages and Barca still gave the GOAT?

simeone would have walked if they didnt go all out for costa

they have also done awful in all their attempts to replace him. mandzukic, jackson martinez, vietto, gameiro have all been disappointments and torres is torres

Good to see a bit of dominating from Chelsea, now if we could just close the tiny leak of selling on players such as KDB and Lukaku.

The KDB sale is a real swede masher.

think you dealt with that leak shortly after leicester 2 - 1 chelsea