The owner of Chinese Super League outfit Tianjin Quanjian has revealed talks were held with super agent Jorge Mendes over a deal to sign Diego Costa but Chelsea will not consider selling their star striker until the end of the season.
Costa’s long-term future at Stamford Bridge has suddenly been thrown into doubt after coming to blows with manager Antonio Conte last week amid reports a £570,000-a-week is on the table from the Chinese club.
The Brazilian-born Spain international was dropped from the squad that beat Leicester 3-0 at the weekend and Conte will not re-consider Costa for selection until his attitude improves.
Chelsea are not interested in selling another player to China this month after already losing Oscar and John Obi Mikel during the January transfer window and are especially not looking to lose a player of Costa’s importance at a time that could derail their title challenge.
However, it appears likely that Chelsea will look to cash in on the former Atletico Madrid striker in the summer and Tianjin Quanjin’s owner, Shu Yuhui, has revealed the Premier League leaders will allow Costa to leave at the end of the season.
“I made an appointment with Mendes and he came to my hometown to visit me,” Yuhui told Tianjin’s Sports Channel, via The Daily Mirror. “At that time, we were interested in signing Costa.
“PSG told us [Edinson] Cavani would only be allowed to leave in June, even though the player himself was willing to join us.
“The same can be said for Costa because Chelsea would only let him leave in June. However, the new season of CSL will almost reach the halfway stage in June, we can’t wait so long.”
Costa has arguably been the best player in the Premier League this season and his stunning resurgence has been crucial to Chelsea’s campaign. In fact, only Alexis Sanchez and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have scored as many goals in the league this season than Costa (14).
For more stats on Diego Costa, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
