A detailed assessment of Costa's contribution. 

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2017/4/18/15333194/costa-by-the-numbers-revisited

Hopw we get a 80-90mil offer from china. 

Seems that fact we are where e are in large to his goals first half of the season just shows how small minded and easy to forget "some" fans are really

You can be grateful for his earlier performances and still pissed off about how bad and petulant he's been in recent weeks at the same time. It's not a black and white case of supporting him or not supporting him.

Surely batshuyuai can't do much worse, can he? I understand conte might not have much like for him, but we need a striker to provide something, anything at the moment. 

It seems people have already forgotten his performances before January.

Yes he's been garbage since then but no Costa before January = no chance at a title.

Needs to be dropped now, however.

13 hours ago, just said:

It's his faux hardman act that really gets me. And then next minute he is rolling around clutching his face when he's hardly been touched. It would be funny if someone actually did nut him I bet he would drop like a sack of spanners.

And for someone his size he is absolutely garbage in the air. Can't time a leap to save his life. 

And to think I was one of those arguing for us to buy him from Atletico. What was I thinking? I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for my mistake. Still, at least I wasn't comparing him to Drogba earlier in the season just because he was scoring goals. Drogba has squeezed out dumps that are more talented than Costa.

Certainly not fit to lace the great mans boot's Just.

That said, your man DD was equally embarrassing at times with his play-acting and rolling about! Thankfully he improved during his time with us and was never the red-card waiting to happen every game. 

 

Fans can accept forwards going through lean spells, with Costa we are use to half a season anyway.

What pisses most of us off is Costa's attitude of wanting to fight everyone and looking like his going to get sent off. Also his all round game is awful and he doesn't even do the basics right. Just make things simple and get in the 6 yrd box.

Pulling Delph back was the last straw for me, I don't think i have seen anything like that. 

Drop Costa and play pedro Hazard Willian up front lots of pace. 

Theres a strange paradox with Costa, without him we wont be in this position but if we continue to play him Spurs could easily catch us.

However for Saturday agaisnt Spurs, he has to play, Spurs as we know press high and hard, theres going to be a lot of long out balls to Costa under pressure, his hold up play has to be on seriously good or else we will be fighting a losing battle all day.

Playing Hazard, Willian and Pedro will mean only Moses and Alonso are somewhat able to compete for the out ball from the back, unless everything is to feet and those guys can turn at Spurs but with Wanyama and Dembele into break up play, Costa is probably the right call for this game.

We all know Conte isnt going to play Batshauyi so a false 9 is the next best option but what I'd do is play Cesc in a 3-5-2 and stick Hazard rightg up next to Costa, Cesc can dictate play from CM and leave Matic and Kante to kick lumps out of the Spuds. Spring Willian and or Pedro for the last 15/20mins to see the game out.

On 16/04/2017 at 20:46, RickUK said:

I have said it before, and over and over, he can score goals but he is a woeful footballer.  And a striker has to have some kind of ability at controlling the ball, getting past people, holding the ball up and linking play.  Drogba was elite at it, and we need someone who can offer that in the summer.  Would i take Morata and Lukaku? Absolutely.

This is 100% spot on IMO. An extremely limited player who did, at times, manage to mask his limitations through his work rate and goals. Now that has gone you are just left with a bang average player, who is the worst wind-up merchant ever to walk on to a football pitch.

The argument that it's Costa who put us where we are is ludicrous, it's assuming we wouldn't play with a striker.

 

How are we to know Lukaku/Morata or any other striker wouldn't have scored the goals Costa has? As the saying goes, if your auntie had baws, she'd be your uncle.

 

Costa was amazing in the first half of the season and has been pony since. Inconsistency is the same thing that Oscar was absolutely hounded about on this board.

 

It's not a fact of disliking or not being grateful just because you can see he's been wel below par for months now.

If we bottle the league, Costa will get absolute pelters. 

So apparently Tianjin Quanjian are working on a deal to sign him. If it's true then his head has definitely been turned by China. I like Costa but the way he's acted lately is disgraceful, he should still be performing. At the start of the season I would have been devasted at the prospect of him leaving, but now, it's a little bit of a relief

I'll be more then happy to sell him for a "crazy" transfer fee. I mean if they get close to the £100 million thats been reported then snatch their hands off.

£650,000 per week is what he'd reportedly earn if he goes. If they can afford to pay him that every week then I'm sure they could afford to pay us at least the £100 million

Lovely jubbly, lets get some big money for him.

How a player at his age wants to play in China and not in Europe with the Champions league etc I'll never know. To me it says a lot about a player, at the end of their careers I can understand. Said a lot about Oscar aswell.

Weird how time changes your perspective on things. January I was praying this does not happen. If he moves in summer, I am not really bothered if it means getting a younger and improving Lukaku.

More interested in who's coming in than who's leaving. Our next 2-3 years all hinge on who we buy to replace Diego, it's a huge signing.

 

Hahahahahaha! 150m euros, yer f**king having a laugh!!!!! Sell him!!!!!!!

£90m for Costa, £60m for oscar, plus terry, ivanovic, and Mikel off the wage bill. We will have very deep pockets in the summer, especially if you believe some of reject bids we made last summer for lukaku and koulibaly. 

Hopefully we get this window right and it puts us back amongst Europe's elite. 

39 minutes ago, Ernie_blue said:

Lovely jubbly, lets get some big money for him.

How a player at his age wants to play in China and not in Europe with the Champions league etc I'll never know. To me it says a lot about a player, at the end of their careers I can understand. Said a lot about Oscar aswell.

Costa has competed in CL final, yes?  That's pretty good.  

Also, at some point money is just more important than winning a football final.  650 k a week would be a ridiculous amount of money to turn down...I certainly understand why he would want to go there.  

2 minutes ago, big blue said:

£90m for Costa, £60m for oscar, plus terry, ivanovic, and Mikel off the wage bill. We will have very deep pockets in the summer, especially if you believe some of reject bids we made last summer for lukaku and koulibaly. 

Hopefully we get this window right and it puts us back amongst Europe's elite. 

If the €150m figure is true, that's £125m mate. Not even £90m. I'd have been happy if we got £45m for him from anywhere tbqh. What are they smoking in China?

2 minutes ago, TheChelsRVA said:

Costa has competed in CL final, yes?  That's pretty good.  

Also, at some point money is just more important than winning a football final.  650 k a week would be a ridiculous amount of money to turn down...I certainly understand why he would want to go there.  

People earn 650k a year and live GREAT lives. Earning that in ONE week is just madness. But we're all speaking from the perspective of the average man. Most European footballers are millionaires and are already rich. Can't see why he wouldn't want to compete for more trophies but I'm not complaining. Roll the cash in!