Antonio Conte has told Diego Costa to forget about going to China and insisted: ‘Money is not everything.’
Mega-rich Chinese club Tianjin Quanjian are willing to offer £80m to Chelsea and give Costa a deal worth £30m-a-year TAX FREE plus a huge £5m signing-on fee.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is determined to take a stand and not sell Costa despite his push to go until at least the summer as a point of principle, according to the Mirror.
That also comes on top of a reminder from Chelsea boss Conte that Costa would be throwing his career away if he did go to China for a huge pay day, with teammate William reported to be the next Chinese target.
Conte said: “I have to see the past. Oscar played with us, he had a good offer from China and he went.
“But I don’t see a threat for my players because I think we are a big club and it is a great honour to play for Chelsea. I don’t see a threat for my players.
“I understand, but the money is not all. When you play for a good team like Chelsea, you must be pleased.
“The Premier League is really competitive and every player wants to come and play in this league. This league is the first in the world because of a lot of positive things. For this reason, I don’t think these offers are a threat for our league.”
Chelsea plan clear-the-air talks with Costa as the first team will return to training on Tuesday and Conte still believes that the bad boy striker can return to the squad this week.
Costa has been urged to apologise by his team mates who have pleaded with him to stay but the Brazilian-born striker has had his head turned and made no secret he wanted to leave England last summer.
That appeared to have been solved after Chelsea’s brilliant start to the campaign until the flare-up with Costa who insists he has a back problem and was angry that fitness coach Julio Tous wanted him to train.
But the underlying issue is that Chelsea fear that Costa’s agent Jorge Mendes – pictured meeting Tianjin Quanjian chairman Shu Yuhui after the bust-up story broke on Friday – has deliberately undermined their title campaign.
Super agent Mendes also represents Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho and knows that the Costa move to China would be the biggest – when fee and wages are added together – in football history.
That has enraged Chelsea who fear an agent war between Mendes and Kia Joorabchian is at the heart of the Costa unrest as agents battle for the best deals in China.
When asked about the problem with agents, Conte played it down.
“I am not worried about this. I don’t worry about destabilising players,” said Conte.
Chelsea have also made it clear to Michy Batshuayi that they don’t want him to leave in January.
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