Chelsea acknowledge Diego Costa’s existence at the bare legal minimum
By George Perry
Chelsea named Diego Costa to their Premier League squad simply to fulfill a legal obligation and nullify Costa’s attempts at a lawsuit. His exclusion from the Champions League squad reflects the club’s real position.
Bottom line up front: Diego Costa has as much chance of playing for Chelsea this season as you or me. Granted, unlike the two of us, Diego Costa is in Chelsea’s Premier League squad. But neither you nor me have threatened Chelsea with legal action (mainly because we never signed a contract with them).
Costa’s inclusion in the Premier League squad is one more piece of evidence that Costa is an absolute amateur in his maneuvers against the Blues. By the simple act of writing his name on a piece of paper they submitted to the Football Association, Chelsea torpedoed the basis of Costa’s legal threats. The club included him in the domestic squad. That fulfills his contract. The contract says nothing about playing time or even being in the match-day squad. He merely needs to be in the squad for Chelsea to uphold their end of the deal. Now any breach is solely on Costa’s part.
Nor does the contract speak to the Champions League. By keeping Costa out of the Champions League squad Chelsea keep open all avenues to sell him in January. He will not be cup-tied and there will be no risk of friction when Chelsea play Atletico Madrid in the group stages. In January, when Atletico is free of their ban, the long-awaited transfer will come true.
Chelsea’s deftness in this latest maneuver is a stark contrast to their mostly ham-handed dealings to date. For once, Chelsea took the simple, subtle and solid option.
On the other hand, their simplicity reveals the poor advice and complete lack of strategy coming from the Costa camp. Costa and his lawyer must have thought they had backed Chelsea into a corner with their legal threats, puff pieces in the Daily Mail and overly public handling of the entire affair. They could not have imagined that Chelsea would call their bluffs and give Costa a place in the squad. The simplest move exploited the critical weakness.
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Ironically, Chelsea’s inactivity in the transfer market this summer facilitated this action. Had they made more signings Antonio Conte would have been less willing to sacrifice a spot to fulfill a legal technicality. Costa is taking a place in the lineup that would have otherwise gone to Alex Sandro, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or any other of Chelsea’s near-misses.
That Costa has spent the entire summer away from Stamford Bridge, popping up periodically to antagonize his club, shows the hubris behind his camp’s lack of foresight. His lawyer hopefully recognizes that they have few – if any – legal avenues open. If they go through with a lawsuit, his continued absence will be the most damning evidence against him.
Diego Costa attempted to orchestrate a scenario with only one outcome: a transfer to Atletico Madrid. He may still likely get that, but not under any of the circumstances he envisioned. He will have nothing close to the upper hand. He will miss a half-season of club and country play. And his career is forever tainted by this incident.
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Chelsea exposed him as a conniving boy in a world of men. Costa should stick to football and leave the business chess to those who know what they are doing.