Antonio Conte is ready to bury the hatchet with bad-boy striker Diego Costa .
Conte could come face-to-face with Costa as early as next week, and the Chelsea boss insists he would shake his hand despite their bitter fall-out that resulted in months of mud-slinging.
Costa is set to complete a £67million move back to previous club Atletico Madrid ahead of their Champions League group-phase showdown with the Blues in the Spanish capital on Wednesday.
The Spain international, who will rejoin Atletico initially on loan and is not eligible to play until January, is expected to attend the game.
Asked if he would shake his hand then,
manager Conte said: “Yeah, I have no problem.”
Costa went AWOL — asking to leave three times last season and then going on strike to force a move back to Atletico before accusing the London club of treating him like a “criminal.”
It became one of the ugliest transfer sagas in Premier League history, and Conte was reluctant to offer any sort of praise for Costa despite him helping to win the title last season and the Blues to two in his three seasons.
Conte said on Friday: “I repeat now: I’m not interested to talk about the past. I think the past is not important.
“For every player, for every single player, the past stays there. If you did well in the past, okay.
“I repeat there is a lack of respect for my players, because Diego is an Atletico player.
“Don’t forget we won together last season. I repeat: for sure we want to thank him for his effort last season with us. Not only last season but in the period that he played for Chelsea.
“But I think every single player was important last season, we won the title, we won the league — maybe it was a big surprise — and also to reach the final of the FA Cup, every player performed fantastic last season.
“I want to thank every player who played last season for Chelsea.”
Costa flew into Madrid on Friday, insisting he did not bear any grudges as he prepares to complete the switch.
“There’s nothing of the sort there, I’m not upset with anybody,” said Costa. “I have no bitterness towards anyone. Everything is cool.”
Discussing his relationship with the Chelsea fans, he added: “Everybody knows how much I love the fans.
Source: The Mirror.
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