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| Chelsea’s Diego Costa |
Chelsea striker Diego Costa has accused the club of pricing him out of a move back to Atletico Madrid in his continuing stand-off with manager Antonio Conte.
The Spanish international is determined to rejoin former side Atletico despite the La Liga club being subject to a transfer ban preventing them from registering players until January.
Costa has not played for Chelsea since the FA Cup final in May, following which he claims manager Antonio Conte sent him a text telling him he was not in his plans for the new season.
Chelsea say that was made clear to him as early as January.
He has accused the Premier League club of treating him like a โcriminalโ and has said he was willing to see out the remaining two years of his deal unpaid in Brazil.
โMy destination is already set,โ Costa was quoted as saying by Brazilian newspaper O Globo. โI must return to Atletico Madrid next season.โ
Atletico are banned from signing players in this window as punishment for signing minors.
Costa has remained in Brazil and been fined by Chelsea for not returning to pre-season training.
In a later interview with ESPN Brasil he accused the club of demanding too high a fee for him.
โWhat I know is that this offer Chelsea will get is bigger than what they paid,โ he said. Chelsea signed Costa from Atletico for ยฃ32 million in July 2014.
โMy agent said that Chelsea want something that Atletico canโt get near. Atletico is a team growing every year, a big team, but they canโt pay an extraordinary amount.
โI think they (Chelsea) should take into account everything that Iโve done. Itโs not my fault that Iโm not at the club. If it was down to me Iโd be playing. Itโs already been one month. Holidays are good but it gets tiresome.โ
With less than two weeks until the transfer window closes, Costa is now concerned that he may have to consider other options.
โIf Atletico and Chelsea donโt come to an agreement and Atletico donโt make a big effort, I canโt keep on wanting to play for a club that isnโt going to make a bigger effort to try and sign me,โ he said.
Conte, who has been reluctant to discuss the issue in public recently, will face further questions at his news conference on Friday ahead Sundayโs Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur.
