Clayton Beerman reacts to the Diego Costa speculation…
Earlier in the season I got very angry with Diego. It was after he got booked against Watford. My problem was he’d been booked for dissent against West Ham when everyone knew coming into the new season that is what would happen if you confronted the referee. He apparently was missing from class that day when that information was disseminated but 5 days later he was at it again this time against Watford when leading up to their goal he claimed he’d been fouled.
I then even speculated that if we could get a decent replacement we should sell him as he was becoming a liability. Problem was then and more so now , there are 
very few replacements available and this would have to wait until the end of the season. As the season wore on however and Diego had been transformed into this well behaved goal machine I became increasingly embarrassed at my own suggestion and was secretly hoping no one would remember. The cracks started to appear in North London when for some reason an innocuous misunderstanding led to a pretty unnecessary and ridiculous public spat with Pedro. We do not know but maybe tensions had begun to emerge even then and this may have been partially responsible for our less than sparkling performance that night.
It is certainly naïve in the modern day to expect loyalty from any player. It is however strange for a player to in essence let down his team mates. There appears to be truth in the rumour that Costa wants out and I think we’d all agree that he has never really settled at the club. All that being said the turnaround in his new cuddly demeanour has been amazing and there was a light hearted moment during the Peterborough cup game when he was laughing and joking with AC. That was two days before it all allegedly kicked off at training. The money is something that we are as mere mortals can’t even contemplate but an alleged pay rise of almost 700% is not to be sniffed at and impossible to ignore. This is unless what you are earning in the first place is pretty good. Whether it is being used to get a better contract we will never know but the damage has been done.
So how will the fans react. Well at Leicester there was a solitary chant of his name and nothing more. I suspect like me most Chelsea fans know that our chances of winning anything this season are not wholly dependent on him but are certainly massively increased if he stays and wants to play. We saw the other version last season and that helped nobody. It will not benefit us if he’s on the pitch and picking fights and skulking on the wing. The opposition will once again target him and if he is in the mood will certainly enjoy the “fight”.
There are two scenarios. One, he does get “welcomed” back into the fold it will be a marriage of convenience which will keep him there until the summer. We will 
sing his name , he will wave and pat the badge but its just a game or two, Conte doesn’t accept him back and he doesn’t play until he leaves in the summer. I think the former is more likely but nothing surprises me in football. Indeed were any of us shocked when our near perfect last 3 months was shattered by the news last week of this bust up. So if in whatever scenario Costa doesn’t feature again this season what happens. We know that Conte doesn’t yet trust Mitchy but it maybe with the lack of an alternative may be an option he has to develop. He has certainly obtained some wonderful performances from other players so why not. The other alternative is to remain with an attack of Hazard ,Willian and Pedro. This is certainly a challenge for defences as there is in essence no one for them to mark but however dynamic there is a danger that we would become one dimensional without a proven goalscorer.
I have great faith in our manager but he is not a miracle worker and he may need some help in the transfer window just to mix things up. We have seen that Solanke is no longer an option, a different type of wages lunacy here and Bamford is now gone/going. The only name we have been linked with is Llorente but there may be someone else that AC can summon. The only other thought is Conte has on a couple of occasions introduced Loftus Cheek as an auxiliary striker and maybe when we need a “battering ram” approach he could be that man.
It goes without saying that this is not a scenario we either wanted or needed!
@goalie59
Clayton is the author of Palpable Discord: A Year of Drama and Dissent at Chelsea
