15 Aug 2017 00:46:17
The more I see of costa in the news the more I think of mario ballotelli and us taking a punt on him, I hope to god he doesn't end up here.

1.) 15 Aug 2017
15 Aug 2017 02:23:02
Scores goals, do anything to win, a bit crazy, willing to press and chase things down, id snap their hand off!

2.) 15 Aug 2017
15 Aug 2017 04:11:09
Except Diego Costa has had an accomplished career and Balotelli hasn't.

{Ed001's Note - Balotelli hasn't had an accomplished career? 33 caps and 13 goals for Italy, 1 Champions League, 1 Premier League, 3 Serie A titles and more. Winning trophies is a team thing, both Costa and Balotelli are proof of that. Costa did his very best to sabotage the second half of Chelsea's season, would have no interest in joining us as he made it plain as long ago as last January that all he wants is to go back to Atletico Madrid.}

3.) 15 Aug 2017
15 Aug 2017 08:16:57
Can we bring Costa in just to train with our defenders. It might toughen Lovren, Matip and Klavan up having Costa man handle them every day. And you never know it might result in one of them then putting in a successful tackle on matchday or even competing in the air.

4.) 15 Aug 2017
15 Aug 2017 09:24:11
You'll have to get costa to come from Brazil. Apparently he has refused to return to Chelsea until he is sold back to AM. Moratta is also unhappy, doesn't sound too good for Chelsea at the moment.

5.) 15 Aug 2017
15 Aug 2017 10:24:39
Ed, I don't really care if Costa wants to join us or not, I was just making the point that his career has been far more accomplished than Balotelli's, and in no way can he be compared to another player who perennially underperforms. How can Diego Costa be labelled a risk like Balotelli if he's spearheaded his teams to 3 league titles in the past 4 years?

Yeah, Balotelli may have a lot of titles next to his name, but upon closer inspection, they don't really mean much when you realise that he didn't significantly contribute towards any of those titles, and he won those trophies more so because he was just there, rather than by virtue of him being a key player. Of course winning trophies is a team effort, but for the lesser players in the squad who didn't contribute much, they won because they were lucky to be in a team that happened to win a trophy due to the greater efforts of other teammates.

The guy is 27 now yet instead of hitting his peak, his career has taken a complete nosedive because he didn't know how to make use of his talents.
Yeah, Costa may be a colourful personality, but he also backs it up on the field. I'm not sure what he did to try and sabotage Chelsea's season though? The only controversy seemed to be the China rumours, which seemed like hot air.

{Ed001's Note - but that is my point, how much is Costa contributing and how much is he hindering? You can't tell because it is a team game, but the season before last he was a major, probably the biggest, part of their problems and then again last season he dragged them back when they were running away with the league.

There is little difference between the two, other than Costa looks like he is doing more on the pitch, but as much of his time is spent bickering and arguing, rather than playing football.}

6.) 15 Aug 2017
15 Aug 2017 12:14:50
But of course you can tell. Costa's role within the team is to score goals, and he excels at it. Without all of his goals, Chelsea wouldn't have won the league twice in the last three years. I think this makes it pretty obvious that he greatly contributes to the team.

How does Costa merely 'look like' he does more than Balotelli? If he's scoring far more goals than Balotelli then he most definitely is doing more than Balotelli on the pitch?

I'm really not privy to how Costa hindered Chelsea last year. Can you elaborate?