Atletico Madrid will either sign Diego Costa from Chelsea in the next two weeks or move on to other options, reports claim.
Costa isn’t wanted by Chelsea Coach Antonio Conte and the Premier League winners have signed Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid, adding to speculation Costa could return to his former club.
Chelsea are on tour in Asia and return on August 1, which Marca cites as the first key date in Costa’s possible return, with Chelsea also facing Arsenal in the Community Shield on August 6 and the Premier League resuming on August 12.
Costa is eager to leave Stamford Bridge and negotiations between Costa and Chelsea are expected to start soon, while Atletico also expect Chelsea to dig in and not make it easy for Costa to leave in order to get full value for the striker.
Atletico however don’t want to wait until the end of the summer to know if they’ll be able to add Costa once their transfer embargo is lifted in January, even though Costa is only thinking about Atletico.
If Costa does return then he will spend the six months before he can be registered training under Diego Simeone, who has identified Costa as his preferred option to bolster the Atletico forward line.
