Report: Atletico Madrid ready to offer Costa escape route from Chelsea
Atletico Madrid's transfer ban hasn't deterred the club from preparing a first formal bid for Chelsea outcast Diego Costa, the Guardian's Dominic Fifield reports.
The £76-million valuation that was mooted in January, when rumours surfaced of interest from the Chinese Super League, is fanciful, with the Blues now likely to accept around £40 million for a striker who's deemed surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
If Atleti tries to slide something closer to a reduced £22 million plus add-ons offer across the table, talks between the clubs could be drawn out.
Diego Simeone's lot wants to wrap up a deal for Costa before Chelsea reconvenes for pre-season training at the start of next week. The move is complicated, however, by Atleti not being able to conduct transfers until January, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld its ban for misconduct over signing foreign players earlier this summer.
That could leave Costa, who revealed in June that his manager Antonio Conte no longer wants him at Chelsea, out of commission until halfway through the campaign.
The 28-year-old marksman put in some of the best and most selfless displays of his Chelsea career during last season's title win, but has been unabashed about his want to rejoin Atleti. The Brazilian-born Spanish international progressively became a prominent feature for Atleti between 2010 and 2014, scoring 27 goals in the club's 2013-14 La Liga triumph, and tried to force a move back to the Vicente Calderon last summer.
Related - Diego Costa: 'I'll only leave Chelsea for Atletico'
Costa's discontent in London appeared to reach a crescendo in mid-January, when he was reportedly involved in a training ground bust-up with coach Julio Tous over an injury, and then missed the next match against Leicester City.
Costa's potential departure would leave a significant gulf in Conte's attack, and widespread accounts that long-term target Romelu Lukaku will instead move to Manchester United will do nothing to alleviate the manager's frustration with this summer's business - or lack thereof - so far.