Costa made an immediate impact upon his arrival at Stamford Bridge in 2014, but struggled to reach the same highs during his second year at the club.
However, he has looked reborn under Antonio Conte this time around, bagging himself 13 league goals so far, but it was almost a very different story over the summer.
However, he has looked reborn under Antonio Conte this time around, bagging himself 13 league goals so far, but it was almost a very different story
Simeone and Costa had been pictured meeting together several times, fuelling rumours that the 28-year-old could be on his way back to the Spanish capital.
And it seems that where there was smoke there was fire, as Simeone did try to bring Costa back to the Vicente Calderon, only to be undone by the financial constraints of the deal.
“I was crystal clear with Diego about what we were trying to do and how long we’d wait for an answer and that’s why we’ve still got a great relationship today,” he told Marca (via Squawka).
“The problem we came up against was that there tend not to be buy-out clauses in England and so Chelsea could say to us ‘we want £180 million’ or ‘we don’t want to sell.’
“From my point of view both I and the club did everything we possibly could to get him back to Atletico but what happened was we set a date after which he had to take action and we signed Kevin Gameiro instead.”
Gameiro may not have been an established fan favourite with the Atletico crowd like Costa, but his arrival has been a smart one.
Over three seasons with Seville, the France international scored a total of 68 goals in 141 appearances, as well as collecting three Europa League titles for his troubles.
So far this term he has found the next seven times in all competitions, though he is being somewhat overshadowed by international colleague Antoine Griezmann.
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