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Text-Gate – Conte Happy Costa Revealed All

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According to The Express Antonio Conte was quite happy that Diego Costa revealed all in the ‘should he stay/should he go` text-gate scandal.

In the piece by Lewis Winter he quotes Gabrielle Marcotti as saying that the situation helped make it clear to Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea boardroom that a new striker was required.

With Costa`s ‘want-away` tactics during the January transfer window, that could have de-railed our title challenge, he can hardly kick-off about his current treatment by the manager.

Conte`s no.1 target for a replacement is Everton`s Romelu Lukaku, whilst the move appears to have stalled, no doubt, with the Toffees are playing hardball, you must assume that moves are afoot behind the scenes to get the deal done.

For me, I`ll be glad to see Costa go. When he wants to be, he`s a world-class striker, with 58 goals in 119 games, the stats don`t lie. I also think Mourinho was correct with his ‘Diego crimes` quote. Sky would endlessly play Costa`s on-field fouls on a loop. Here I`m thinking of that ‘stamp` on Emre Can a couple of years ago in the League Cup Semi-final against Liverpool. Other players at other clubs could do the same thing and it would barely be mentioned.

That said he didn`t help himself, he certainly wasn`t afraid to try a bit of simulation, or have a crafty dig at defender. I think what he failed to understand is, there are about 15 TV cameras watching him. I`m sure referees watch the match highlights and don`t like to be mugged off. They don`t forget.

Whatever the outcome, as fans, with no action on the pitch at this time of the year, we are bereft of anything to discuss. All we have is transfer speculation and to be honest it`s a little bit boring.

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