With 52 points from 21 games, Antonio Conte’s debut season in England is going according to the plan as his Chelsea side are currently in the 1st place in the points table, 7 points off Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool in the 2nd place.
The manager will be happy with the form of his first team players this season and will hope that they can continue their performances throughout the business end of the campaign.
However, they were recently dealt a blow after reports suggested that the Chelsea boss was in a feud with star striker Diego Costa.
The Spaniard, who is currently the top goal scorer in the Premier League this season, has been in top form, but he was dropped from the previous game against Leicester City and this saw a number of news outfit run stories of his exit this month.
There will be no shortage of teams that would want to snap Costa up and he was offered a record-breaking deal from China not long ago. His former team Atletico Madrid were also briefly interested but Tianjin Quanjian’s club’s president claimed they had reached an agreement with Costa’s agent for a move this January.
However, all such reports were squashed today after Chelsea manager Antonio Conte revealed that the 28-year old is happy at the Stamford Bridge and is not ready to make a move anytime soon.
Costa, has less than 2 years left on his contract and Chelsea are yet to open any kind of talks with the players. Reports suggest that the player is not ready to extend his stay and is looking for opportunities elsewhere but his manager is confident of keeping him at the club.
Speaking to the media ahead of the game against Hull City this weekend, Conte said, “I think he wants to stay with Chelsea. He is very happy to play with this.”
“His decision is in his mind but he is happy and happy to stay here and play for us,” he added.
The Italian manager also revealed that the reports of a feud between him and Costa are not true and that he was dropped from the previous game due to a back problem. He went on to suggest in his latest presser that Costa is now back in training and available for the game this weekend.
“He is available for the game against Hull City,” Conte said.
“He started training on Tuesday with the team. he trained very well, he has no pain in his back and is available,” the Italian added.
This will come as great news for Chelsea fans who would not want to lose their star striker any time soon. Do you think Chelsea can keep hold of Diego Costa till the start of the next season?