Anyone want Diego?

News of free agents (see earlier posts from October). Diego Costa is available! In England, Costa is remembered as a a key part of Chelsea's Premier League title winning teams of 2015 and 2017. How to describe his style of play? Start with the fact that no defender wanted to play against him. Aggressive, physical, a trickster who riled opponents into giving away penalties and red cards (see Gabriel Paulista for Arsenal in 2015 - https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-furious-gabriel-sees-red-6474691). Sum him up in one word? Nasty.

But a terrific centre forward in his prime; 58 goals and 28 assists in 120 matches for Chelsea.

After Chelsea he went back to Atletico Madrid, winning the Europa League for coach Diego Simeone

- another hard man as a player, perfectly suited to Costa. In 2020, however, he was blighted by injury - 132 days injured during the year. Age, at 32, and a hard man style of play, perhaps took their toll and even when he came back from injury he couldn't get back his place in the team. In December he and the club agreed to terminate his contract.

So now he is a free agent. You'd think that he still has a couple of years at near to the top level in him. He probably wouldn't want huge wages - largely because no club is going to take a punt on high wages given his injury record. But you'd imagine there are clubs around for whom he could do a decent job, maybe on a pay by play contract. There are two Premier League clubs which have scored only 9 goals this season - Burnley from 16 games and Sheffield United from 18.

Any takers? I'll definitely have him in my Free Agent XI.

Acknowledgement for details to https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/statistik/vertragslosespieler

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