On the rare occasion Diego Costa isn’t kicking lumps out of the opposition, he’s pretty active on social media.
The Brazilian born Spaniard loves a bit of Instagram, and regularly fills it with squad selfies after games, usually saying the generic footballer type stuff, such as ‘great team effort’ etc etc.
But, after Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Liverpool in a pre season friendly, Costa uploaded a standard post game selfie, captioned ‘thank you very much for all my friends’.
Normally, this kind of thing would be passed off as standard behaviour, but with Costa heavily linked with a move back to former club Atletico Madrid, people are seeing this as a goodbye message.
The fact that it seems to be worded differently gives the impression that he’s thanking Chelsea for giving him some new friends (presumably he doesn’t make many, considering he batters most people he goes near), rather than congratulating his buddies on the win.
Diego Simeone wants to partner Costa with Antoine Griezmann next season, and sees the pair as the key to Champions League success, after two final defeats in the last three years.
Costa was Chelsea’s top scorer last season with 12 goals, the majority of which came after Jose Mourinho was sacked, but he is thought to fancy a return to Spain, with his former employers willing to pay big money for him.
New Blues manager Antonio Conte has been tracking the Alvaro Morata situation, with an eye on replacing one Spaniard with another, should Costa leave.
Michy Batshuayi has already signed to increase competition, but is seen as a squad improvement rather than a replacement for the 27-year-old.
Conte is eyeing more signings for his debut Premier League season, after splashing out on Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante.
He could do without losing one of his key strikers, but Instagram movements are pretty telling these days and this could be a clear sign that Costa is about to pack his bags.
