Chelsea appear to have won the fight to keep Diego Costa after Atletico Madrid opted to sign Kevin Gameiro from Sevilla instead.
The Spanish international had been linked with a return to his former club for months, but it appears as though he will now remain at Stamford Bridge and look to continue to make a positive impression on Antonio Conte.
As reported by Eurosport, it’s believed that Atleti have splashed out around €40m on Gameiro, with Luciano Vietto moving in the opposite direction as part of the deal.
It’s certainly an astute signing given that the Frenchman scored 67 goals and added 17 assists in three years with Sevilla, and he has now put pen-to-paper on a four-year deal with Diego Simone’s men to link up with Antoine Griezmann up front for the capital club.
The report from Eurosport goes on to discuss the fact that the Champions League runners-up have effectively given up on their hope of signing Costa, even though he was ultimately one of Simeone’s first options.
Having chased a possible deal for months, it appears as though this finally now signals the end of talk, with Eurosport’s Cristian Maxedo adding: “Only a loan of Angel Correa to another team, such as Barcelona, who have been keen, could re-open the Costa deal.
“But to be honest I think they were trying to get it off the ground for months. Simeone would have preferred Costa, but Chelsea refused to budge. There’s a 0.1% chance something could change now.”
With Griezmann, Gameiro, Correa and Fernando Torres as his four options up front, it’s difficult to see why Simeone would move for another forward, particularly at great cost to the club, at this stage despite his desire to see Costa return.
As a result, Conte will now likely have the Spaniard at his disposal this coming season, with new summer signing Michy Batshuayi and Loic Remy acting as either a partner up top or direct competition as soon as Costa recovers from a niggling back injury that threatens to force him to miss the start of the season.