Antonio Conte’s treatment of Diego Costa at Chelsea has been described as ‘incredible’ by Liverpool legend Phil Thompson as he makes his long-awaited transfer to Atletico Madrid.
The Blues announced last week that they’d decided to let the Spain international rejoin his former club, after it initially looked like he could be on the move in the summer.
Costa will now link up with Atletico when the transfer window opens again in January, but Thompson has questioned Conte’s handling of the whole saga.
The Italian earned some criticism for telling Costa his Chelsea career was over via a text message at the end of last season, before he’d even secured a replacement.
Thompson believes Conte got lucky to snap up Alvaro Morata, who has started superbly for the club, when it looked like Romelu Lukaku had been their top target before he instead ended up at Manchester United.
‘Every manager deserves the right to pick your own team, your own squad,’ Thompson told Sky Sports.
‘We’re not privy to what goes on in the dressing room, behind the scenes.
‘For a manager to do what Antonio Conte did I thought was quite incredible. While he’s your player you should never write him off.
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‘To tell him so early that “you’re finished and you should find yourself another club” I just thought was very, very strange.
‘You never know what was going to happen and low and behold I think they thought they had Lukaku absolutely nailed on.
‘That didn’t happen, then they were struggling.
‘In fairness they’ve got a hell of a result in Morata.’
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