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Conte’s ironic handling of Costa is risky

By Daily Sports on July 11, 2017

Antonio Conte, the Chelsea Manager proved a shrewd manager of players last year at Chelsea as he got the Blues firing after a disappointing previous 2015/16 season in which they ended in a dismal 10th place.

Amongst his admirable achievements last season was transforming a hot-headed Diego Costa to be a much calmer on-field presence, freeing the striker from his self-inflicted troubles of petulant distractions that usually put him in trouble with the English FA and made him a much disliked figure amongst the non Chelsea family.

But last season Costa was a much more pleasing-in-the-eye player as he improved his behaviour in the pitch and the result was more goals for Chelsea as he ended up one of the top scorers of the premier league.

A lot of credit for Costa’s improved behaviour went to Conte for his man-management skills. But in January it emerged Costa was seeking a move to China and his relationship with Conte was damaged to the point where the attacker was dropped for a match.

Conte must have seen enough from his daily relationship with Costa in Chelsea to know that he can’t be relied upon in the long term. But what is bizarre was the manner in which the manager has told Costa that he’s done with him at Chelsea.

Sending a text message to a player informing him that he’s not part of your plans going forward is certainly a new way of disengaging with a fan favourite player.

The player has duly kept the message and has gone public about it. Could Conte not have been contented with telling off Costa verbally? There’s something about a stored written message that makes the impact of the message linger, especially when San amicable settlement is possible.

Now that Chelsea have lost out on signing striker Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United, getting a replacement for Costa is looking desperate. But let’s say that attempts to sign Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata, Torino’s Andrea Belloti or Arsenal’s Alexi Sanchez fails for one reason or the other, then Chelsea and indeed Conte may be forced to make peace with Costa. He's not a striker you can easily replace, because he’s that good.

Conte’s dismissal letter to Costa could make a U-turn very difficult. It would be scary for Chelsea fans to go into the new season with last year’s fringe attacker Michy Batshuayi as the first choice striker with no acclaimed back up.

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 11, 2017