Diego Costa has made it very clear that he is not a big fan of former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte after the circumstances which contributed to his Stamford Bridge exit.
Despite firing the Blues to a Premier League title in 2016/17, the Spain international had been sold before the new season began, and Conte was unable to defend the title.
Costa recently stated the Chelsea players didn’t like Conte during their time together, even though he produced results on the pitch throughout his time at West London.
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Diego Costa has nothing good to say about Antonio Conte personally
The striker recognised this when asked if he had anything good to say about his former manager, although Costa couldn’t bring himself to say anything about Conte personally.
He said to Mario Suarez: “As a coach, spectacular”, but when asked about him personally, he said:
“I don’t know, I often don’t comment on that, but he treated me in a way for revenge, you know? Because just when he arrived, I asked to leave. And I had just arrived, I was a very important player and I didn’t want to stay because Cholo had been calling me all week.
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“This was before Conte arrived. Just when he arrived. So Cholo called me all week, and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll go, I’ll go,’ because I wanted to return to Atleti. And I think Conte got upset about that, you know? He held it against me.
“As a coach, he’s very good, he wins everywhere he goes. But he pushes too much. Too much. There comes a point where, in the end, you give everything, you give everything.
“No matter how much money we earn, if you don’t get a ‘thank you’ or a hug so you can say, ‘Look, my boss is happy,’ in the end you say, ‘What’s going on?’ The important thing is managing people. People. I think that’s more important than anything else.”
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Conte decided to move forwards with Alvaro Morata as his number nine, although he never hit the heights of his international teammate.
He would also find minutes far harder to come by when they would end up signing Olivier Giroud in January. The Frenchman struck up a better partnership with Eden Hazard in attack.
Costa is still very much appreciated by Chelsea fans for his part in two title-winning campaigns. He was given a brilliant reception when he returned to Stamford Bridge as part of the Wolves squad.
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