Romelu Lukaku | Chelsea

TheMagicFoolBus said:
Sort of - in January of that title-winning year Costa had his head completely turned by a ludicrously large contract from a Chinese team, so he threw a fit and pushed for the transfer. Chelsea refused to budge and Conte got extremely pissed off - Costa sulked for much of the second half of the year and he was far less effective. Conte didn't want to deal with him again after that so insisted he be sold in the summer.
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I remember that apparent fallout in training between him and Conte after the bid came in from China, but my recollection was that Costa still contributed a lot in the second half of the season and you arguably wouldn't have won the league had he left in January.

To then push him out the door without a like-for-like replacement coming in seemed strange and likely led to you finishing outside the top 4 the following season.
 
Gabriel Djemba-Bebe said:
I remember that apparent fallout in training between him and Conte after the bid came in from China, but my recollection was that Costa still contributed a lot in the second half of the season and you arguably wouldn't have won the league had he left in January.

To then push him out the door without a like-for-like replacement coming in seemed strange and likely led to you finishing outside the top 4 the following season.
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He scored 20 goals and had 7 assists that year - 15 and 6 of which before the end of January. Hazard is the one who got us over the line that year.

Also important to remember that Costa had previous for throwing his toys out of the pram given he went completely off the boil in 15/16 - Conte is obviously a hothead but getting rid of Costa wasn't a bad move (and Costa was mostly finished at the top level in retrospect anyway).
 
Sir Erik ten Hag said:
Lukaku of all strikers to be the one who pushed Osimhen into obscurity. You just can't write this up. :lol:
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It is utterly mind boggling altogether. A player widely regarded as a joke replacing one of the most sought after players in Europe at one point.
 
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