Diego Costa has had a bust-up with Chelsea boss Antonio Conte
DIEGO COSTA’S future at Chelsea was thrown into major doubt as he was dropped for todays game at Leicester amid a blazing row with manager Antonio Conte - after an astonishing £576,000 a week offer from China that would make him the best paid player in the world.
The fiery striker has not travelled with the squad for the crucial Premier League clash at Leicester today - and had trained alone for the past three days after complaining of a back problem.
The Spain striker this week is understood to have been the latest Premier League star to have received a massive offer to move to Chinese football - in his case a £30 million a year offer from Super League club Tianjin Quanjian, who are willing to pay Chelsea £80m for the striker.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is though understood to be adamant that he does not want to sell Costa, Chelsea’s top scorer with 14 goals this season.
Costa, Chelsea sources have indicated, complained of a lower back problem earlier this week, while the club’s medical staff were not convinced, and Antonio Conte got involved in the row.
Now the striker has been left out of the squad for a critical league game against the reigning Premier League champions, which Chelsea will hope to win to recover from seeing their 13 game winning run ended at Tottenham last week.
Chelsea had been planning to hand Costa, in outstanding form this season, a new deal, but that could be thrown into doubt by these latest developments.
Chelsea believe the Chinese offer has sparked Costa’s latest outburst but whatever the cause it is a major headache for Conte as he tries to keep his team’s campaign on the rails.
The Chelsea manager could turn to Belgian starlet Michy Batshuayi to lead his attack today, but the £33m man has not convinced in his few appearances so far, and Eden Hazard to play up front.
Conte though up until now this season has had a good relationship with Costa, who fell out with previous manager Jose Mourinho last year. The striker is notoriously volatile though, and the club hope that this latest row will blow over.
If it does not though, Chelsea will need to replace Costa in the next fortnight before the January transfer window closes. Costa has been keen on Swansea striker Fernando Llorente, but only previously as a back up to his main man.
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