Diego Costa rumours go to great lengths to create baseless drama

Here’s what we know: Diego Costa will not be in Chelsea’s squad against Leicester City. Everything else is a silly season Frankenstein cobbled together from conjecture, a smattering of facts and plenty of “sources.”

Nothing livens up a Friday afternoon like some explosive tweets followed by downright nuclear headlines. Diego Costa and Antonio Conte had a rift! No, it was a bust-up! AYFKM, it was a blazing row!!! The always reliable sources heard Conte yell “Go to China!” at Costa amid reports of a £30 million per year wage and £80 million transfer fee offer from Tianjin Quanjian.

The sources’ ever-present adjunct – the experts – foretold immediate doom for Chelsea. “This is the very last thing Chelsea need… They lose him and all of a sudden they are not going to win the Premier League,” Graeme Souness said. A quick soundbite from Yannick Bolasie – “I don’t think he’d think twice” – and the megastore is practically pulling the Costa merchandise from the shelves.

In honor of Diego Costa, let’s do a little hold-up play here. Costa has been injury-prone his entire career. A flare-up of his hamstring injury is as much an inevitability as a fifth yellow card. Earlier this week, Costa disputed either his diagnosis, prognosis or treatment plan with Chelsea’s medical staff.

He spends a few days training on his own, and then does not travel to the upcoming game. That game happens to be against the 15th place team, and takes place two weeks before back-to-back games against the second- and third-place teams.

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At the same time, this injury-prone player happens to be highly combustible with a history of lashing out at peers and coaches. He is passionately competitive, and is only happy when he is demolishing his opponents with goals. He senses a recurrence of his perennial injury in the middle of a career-best season. Upset at the prospect of missing game time, he lashes out.

A collateral target of that outburst is the only person more passionate, more competitive and more combustible than him: his manager. The same man who, having secured a league title, exploded on his trusted star goalkeeper, Giorgio Buffon.

"I don’t want to hear another word. From you, of all people, I would never have expected such a thing.. You’re a disappointment, a defeat from the moment you open your mouth. Just like all the rest of these half-wits."

To recap: A player who is prone to injury but is currently on top-form feels the onset of an injury that could cut into his playing time. He lives life on a hair-trigger, and the prospect of missing game time sets him off. His equally fiery manager responds in a way that only he can.

Diego Costa acted according to type. Antonio Conte, the only man who has ever tamed Diego Costa, acted according to type. And yet this was enough to break Chelsea Twitter on a Friday afternoon.

OK, in fairness, we left out an objective fact at the top. We do know one more thing. Jorge Mendes is in China. Mendes is Jose Mourinho’s long-time agent, who secured Mourinho his return to Chelsea, his severance from Chelsea and his new job at Manchester United.

Mendes also happens to be Diego Costa’s agent, in addition to many other top football stars. Think of the big names in world football. If they are not with Mino Raiola, they are with Jorge Mendes. Mendes could be in China working on behalf of any of them, including Jose Mourinho for all we know.

But that’s just the point. We don’t know. Occam’s Razor tells us that Costa’s injury likely underlies the change in training protocols, the lineup change and his state of mind. Occam also tells us that Diego Costa and Antonio Conte probably have a relationship as volatile and passionate – but as committed to winning – as their individual personalities.

The manager that clasped Costa in a hug after every game and that shared a laugh with him on the touchline against Peterborough is not going to throw it all away because of one outburst away from the public eye. That would be a Mourinho level of pettiness. No one was surprised when it happened under the ex-skipper because it was completely consistent with who he was. It is completely inconsistent with Antonio Conte.

Next: Antonio Conte wins third consecutive manager of the month award

The summer transfer window is rightly called “silly season.” The January transfer period is rarely as enjoyable or whimsical. Wake me up when the window ends.