{"id":3552,"date":"2014-04-15T22:41:25","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T22:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=3552"},"modified":"2014-04-16T04:50:32","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T04:50:32","slug":"chelsea-offers-costa-185000-a-week-to-move-to-stamford-bridge-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/chelsea-offers-costa-185000-a-week-to-move-to-stamford-bridge-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Offers Costa \u00a3185,000-A-Week To Move To Stamford Bridge This Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jose Mourinho is confident Chelsea have tied up a stunning \u00a350million deal for Diego Costa.<\/p>\n

Atletico Madrid striker Costa is poised to agree a contract worth \u00a3185,000-a-week to move to Stamford Bridge this summer.<\/p>\n

Atletico boss Diego Simeone has even admitted they cannot stand in the 25-year-old\u2019s way \u2013 and confirmed thatMourinho’s Blues are\u00a0in for his star forward.<\/p>\n

Simeone said of Costa: \u201cIt will depend on him and what he thinks is best for his future. I will support any decision he makes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s natural that Chelsea are interested in him and that makes me happy, because my aim and that of my coaching staff is to see our players improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that Chelsea have huge financial power and if he wants to live off football for the rest of his life, I will have no problem in him going.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like Radamel Falcao – how could I tell him not to go to Monaco last summer? He gave life to this club during his time at Atletico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simeone’s words do throw up another amazing sub-plot for Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final against Atletico,\u00a0which begins next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Costa is set to play despite being left with a gaping wound in his leg after colliding with a goalpost\u00a0in Sunday\u2019s league win over Getafe.<\/p>\n

Chelsea have already held lengthy discussions with Atletico over on-loan Blues keeper Thiabaut Courtois, who will face his parent club in the semi\u00a0after UEFA\u2019s intervention last week.<\/p>\n

Belgium keeper Courtois originally had a \u00a35m clause in his loan deal which Atletico would have to pay if they wanted to play him against Chelsea, but the clubs are now believed to have come to an arrangement.<\/p>\n

The stunning Costa deal has been brokered by agent Jorge Mendes, and Atletico will have to pay a big chunk of the \u00a350m fee to a third-party company.<\/p>\n

Chelsea want Courtois back for next season after three years on loan at Atletico – Mourinho wants him to compete with Petr Cech to be first choice as Chelsea plan a major shake-up.<\/p>\n

The west Londoners will also offload their current strike-force.<\/p>\n

Italy’s Inter Milan are keen on Fernando Torres, although Simeone has also admitted that Atletico could be interested in taking back the 30-year-old – who began his career with them before joining Liverpool in 2007 – as part of the Costa deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cFernando is always with us [in spirit], obviously I have sent messages to him,\u201d said the ex-Argentina midfielder. \u201cHe is very happy with everything that is happening to this team and he is always present, wishing us luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course he would love to come back to the club he grew up in and where he was happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as moving Torres on, Chelsea will sell Demba Ba, Romelu Lukaku is heading for the exit\u00a0after spending the past two seasons on loan at West Brom and Everton respectively and Samuel Eto\u2019o wants out when his contract expires in the summer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jose Mourinho is confident Chelsea have tied up a stunning \u00a350million deal for Diego Costa. Atletico Madrid striker Costa is poised to agree a contract worth \u00a3185,000-a-week to move to Stamford Bridge this summer. Atletico boss Diego Simeone has even admitted they cannot stand in the 25-year-old\u2019s way \u2013 and confirmed thatMourinho’s Blues are\u00a0in for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3553,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions\/3553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}