News has emerged this week that Chelsea turned down a world record transfer bid for Diego Costa in the January transfer window. The club received a bid of €107 million (£90.3 million) from Tianjin Quanjian for the Spanish striker, which would have eclipsed the fee Man Utd paid for Paul Pogba in the summer. It is a phenomenal amount of money for a 28-year-old forward that has never really been spoken about in the same breath as the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi. But Chelsea did well to stick to their guns and turn the bid down. It caused an almighty row and Costa sat out one game, but soon returned to the starting 11 and has continued banging in the goals as if nothing had happened, and he looks set to fire Chelsea to the Premiership title.
They would never have been able to replace him at such short notice and they made a decision that placed short term glory over long-term financial aspirations, something that will be roundly welcomed by the fans. Chelsea had already offloaded bit part players Oscar and Ramires for an absolute fortune to the nouveau riche Chinese Super League, but were not prepared to let a star name go. Despite missing a couple of games, Costa is on 17 goals for the season in the league, just one behind the joint leaders for the Golden Boot – Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez. 5Dimes has odds for Chelsea and they show that the Blues are heavy favourites to win their next few games, so he will have plenty more chances to add to his tally, and he is now second favourite overall behind Kane for the Golden Boot.
Chelsea can claim the title, cash in on him in the summer and then plan for the future. Tianjin Quanjian, not exactly a household name for any football fans, can come in with another bid for Diego Costa in the summer and it is likely to be of a similar value. After all, he will only be six months older, and if they don’t snap him up, a Chinese rival might. Then Chelsea would have an enormous war chest, bolstered by the guarantee of Champions League football and the obviously deep pockets of Roman Abramovich, to go out and make a huge splash in the transfer market.
The first priority will be a striker. If, as expected, Costa leaves to fill his boots in China, Chelsea will be left looking a little lacklustre in the goal-scoring department. Michy Batshuayi has failed to impress Conte this season and didn’t even make the team for the FA Cup game against Wolves. Bertrand Traore has impressed on loan at Ajax and has great potential but is not yet ready to lead the line for Chelsea on a regular basis. Tammy Abraham, a promising forward, has returned to Chelsea after being injured on loan at Bristol City, but he is another for the future, while Loic Remy’s Chelsea career is over as he can’t even get into the team at Crystal Palace, where he is on loan.
So Chelsea need at least two strikers if Costa leaves. They are being linked with several of the top strikers across Europe and won’t have many problems attracting them as they will have the lure of Champions League football and can pay top wages. Alvaro Morata, Andrea Belotti and Moussa Dembele have all been touted and Chelsea could well end up signing two of them. Morata has been frustrated at Real Madrid, where he cannot get in the team ahead of Karim Benzema, despite having better goal-scoring stats, and Chelsea could be the perfect escape route for one of Europe’s best young strikers. Dembele has been destroying teams in Scotland and Europe this season, and if Chelsea could sign him and Morata they would have a fearsome array of options next season, with Eden Hazard still able to run riot.