Why Antonio Conte and Diego Costa Could Not Last at Chelsea

It's interesting to look back at how certain managers can handle conflict and what that leads them to. Italian manager Antonio Conte is a great example of that, with his ruthless man-management oftentimes leading to strong confrontations with top players. Something along those lines happened with Brazilian/Spaniard striker Diego Costa at Chelsea during the 2016/17 season.

The duo worked together great professionally, something that ensured that the team would win the Premier League title in 2016/17, but that also came at the expense of their respect for each other. While it was never made extremely clear why, the two of them had a fallout, and Costa would force an exit from Chelsea, never mincing his words regarding Conte and his role in his exit.

The Situation Between the Two

Diego Costa and Antonio Conte only worked together once, which was the 2016/17 season with Chelsea, and that would prove to be very successful for both parties. Conte would win the league during his first season in England and Costa would score 20 goals that year, so, from that end, it was a satisfying collaboration.

However, it was a lot more complicated than that. As per reports, the striker wanted to negotiate a new contract with the Blues and Conte then blocked and later also kept him from signing with Chinese Super League side Tianjin Quanjian. This resulted in a lot of problems for both sides, with Costa trying to force a move to no avail.

Despite all the difficulties, both Costa and Conte agreed to cast their differences aside for the remainder of the season so they could focus on winning the English Premier League. They would achieve, and then Costa would try to force a move during the following summer.

"I've never had a problem with the fans. My problem was not with the crowd, it was with that coach," Diego Costa said in 2022 after meeting with Chelsea fans when playing against them for Wolverhampton. "I left in bad terms with that manager, I left a champion for the second time, and he didn't count on me."

"That was nothing I could do. I had to leave. Today showed that I did not leave on bad terms with the fans. It's very special. It's the feeling that in the time that you spent here, you did good work and left good memories. Chelsea fans always treated me very well. I was always surprised by the way they treated me. It's satisfying."

Costa's Desire to go Back to Atlético Madrid

The issue is that Costa wanted to return to Atlético Madrid in the summer of 2017, but Chelsea was not cooperating with the process, which is something that the player himself highlighted.

"My relationship with the coach has been bad this season," said Costa after a Spanish 2-2 draw with Colombia: "It is a shame, I have already forwarded the message to Chelsea people to decide."

Moreover, the striker would return to Brazil, separated from the rest of the group, and begin to do interviews with several networks, emphasizing how disappointed he was with the club and with Conte, in particular. One doesn't need to imagine how much this annoyed the Italian manager, who was very vocal about it in a press conference a few days later.

"It's great," Conte said in 2017 after Costa's interviews in Brazil, as per The Guardian. "I prefer to laugh. I can tell you that everyone who was in Chelsea knows very well what happened last season with Diego. It's funny, this interview."

There is also the fact that Atlético Madrid were going through a transfer ban, and Costa wasn't going to be able to play until January of 2018, which hampered the process for a deal.

Finally Back at Atlético Madrid

Ultimately, Conte would get his way and Diego Costa would be sold to Atlético Madrid, where he would remain for a couple of years. Despite the sour ending to their relationship, the Brazilian has remained a fan-favorite among the Chelsea faithful, which was evidenced when he faced them with Wolverhampton, as mentioned earlier.

"(Conte and I) had problems off the pitch, but I think he is a really good manager," Costa told ESPN in 2020. "I have no hard feelings towards Conte, but to be a top, top manager, he needs to change the human side of his management. He is very suspicious. At a team like, say, Real Madrid, he would never last a season."

When it comes to Antonio Conte, he would leave Chelsea at the end of the 2017/18 season. The results and performances decreased significantly despite winning the FA Cup, plus the fact that the Italian wasn't happy with the club's transfer dealings, Costa situation aside. All of this resulted in him leaving, which has been a common pattern across all the different clubs he coached at.

"It's right always to keep good memories and I prefer to keep good memories also about Diego Costa because we won together a league title in an incredible season," Conte told The Telegraph in 2017. "But, for sure, the truth, we know the truth. The player, his agent, the club and I. We know how many times he asked to go away to Atlético Madrid at the start of the season, during the season to go to China, and at the end of the season to join, again, Atlético Madrid."

Alas, it wasn't meant to be for these two men. They have both proven to be capable of winning with various teams on their own and working together, but there is no denying that they didn't manage to make it click.

However, when it comes to Chelsea fans, they can be happy about what this collaboration delivered for them when they decided to work together. The 2016/17 season is, as of this writing, the last time that the Blues won the Premier League, so there is a special meaning to their collaboration and is something that should be appreciated a lot more often instead of just focusing on the negative side of things.