Chelsea striker Diego Costa. (Photo : Getty Images)
New Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte finally stopped all speculations of a Stamford Bridge exit by Diego Costa this summer after he emphatically told reporters that the Spanish striker is "our player", recent reports said.
Caught Offside reported that the 46-year-old former Italy national team manager "has delivered an emphatic answer on the future" of Costa "by insisting that he doesn't want him to leave".
The 27-year-old goalscorer had suffered a sub-par season with the Blues last term, scoring only 12 goals in 28 Premier League appearances, which resulted in the Spaniard not being called up by his national squad in the recently concluded Euro 2016 games.
Costa netted 20 goals in 26 games during the 2014-2015 season, his first with Chelsea, when the Fulham residents captured the English top flight title. He was coming off a 27-goal performance with La Liga squad Atletico Madrid the season before.
Speculations abound in the past few weeks that Los Colchoneros is close to snagging him back from the English club this summer, but the newly-appointed Italian mentor at last put an end to all the talks by saying that Costa "has a major role to play for him at Stamford Bridge moving forward".
"Diego Costa is our player, he's a fantastic player with fundamental importance," Conte insistently told reporters during a press conference prior to the Blues' pre-season friendly with Austrian Bundesliga club SK Rapid Wien. "He's very happy and is working hard."
There had been a lot of "conflicting reports" with regards to the Brazil-born Spaniard's future and so Conte's remarks were a breath of fresh air not only for the Pensioners' fans and supporters but also for the player himself.
ESPN indicated that with three years left in his current deal with the Blues, Costa had arrived for pre-season training "much leaner and fitter" as he is said to be more than ready to "put a difficult period of his career behind him".
"He stays with us, he is working very hard, he is very happy to work with his teammates and with me in the new idea of football. He is a Chelsea player," Conte reiterated. "He is an important player, a very strong player, one of the best in the world, and I am sure when he goes into our ideas he will score a lot of goals for us."
