Chelsea striker Diego Costa reportedly turned down a big-money contract renewal offer from the club in the lead up to last week’s bust-up.
The Spaniard was left out of Chelsea’s win over Leicester City at the weekend after problems arose in midweek, with further details continuously being added to the situation.
As reported by The Times, Costa was offered a five-year deal worth £200,000-a-week by the Premier League leaders, but he was unwilling to commit himself to the club.
In turn, it’s added that Chinese Super League outfit Tianjin Quanjian are willing to offer him £570,000-a-week, which could turn his head and make him consider an exit from Stamford Bridge either this month or in the summer.
This really isn’t what Chelsea supporters want to be reading right now as ultimately the 28-year-old is integral to their hopes of winning the Premier League title this season.
While that wasn’t a problem this past weekend in his absence, his record of 14 goals in 19 games suggests otherwise and over an extended period of time, Antonio Conte may well start to feel the loss.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star claim that Costa is also the subject of an £80m bid from Jiangsu Suning, who are also willing to put a ridiculous contract offer on the table worth £600,000-a-week.
You have to question whether it’s any real surprise that he’s having his head turned with the money on offer, while the official line from Chelsea remains that an injury is keeping him out, all this transfer speculation and talk of a bust-up at training with a fitness coach could lead to an exit.
However, the biggest problem for Jiangsu is that they have already reached their quota of foreign stars, as implemented by the CSL this month to limit the number of players coming in from abroad and denying young Chinese talent a chance to develop.
In turn, they would have to sell first before swooping for Costa, with big-money recruits Ramires and Alex Teixeira likely to be the ones to remain.