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An Instagram conversation left Aston Villa fans frothing over a potential move for Diego Costa – but could it actually happen?
Words: Regan Foy | @findfoy
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Aston Villa have been linked with another striker signing throughout this window following the record-breaking arrival of Ollie Watkins, who has impressed in his opening four fixtures in claret and blue.
The likes of Odsonne Edouard, who has a £35,000,000 price tag, and Rhian Brewster, who is said to require a £20,000,000 fee to move have been touted as potential options – but there are murmurs of a potential ‘long shot’ option in the makings.
Earlier this week, Aston Villa fans were obvious excited when John Terry and former Chelsea striker Diego Costa were spotted chatting on social media, with the Assistant Head Coach admitting how much he missed the Spain international, before Costa replied with ‘Take me with you captain’.
Now, unless John Terry is moving clubs and that is something that the Atletico Madrid forward is aware of, there’s an interesting link to be made there. Could Costa be aware of the ‘ambition’ and the ‘mission’ at Aston Villa – and admitting he’d like to be a part of that journey?
Aston Villa, recently coming off the back of an unbeaten start to the season, are rumoured to be interested in one more deal to end what is considered an exceptionally strong transfer window.
There is, it seems, more than meets the eye in regards to that ‘final signing’.
A number of journalists have stated that Aston Villa are working alongside a ‘top agent’ to attempt to bring in a ‘long shot’ forward in recent days, and when fans think of top agents, they often consider Gestifute’s Jorge Mendes amongst the creme de la creme of that profession.
Mendes is known for his work alongside Wolverhampton Wanderers, who now boast young Portuguese starlet Fabio Silva as a back-up to consistent scorer Raul Jiminez, but Aston Villa have worked with him in the past with the initial loan arrival of Anwar El Ghazi whilst the club were still in the Sky Bet Championship.
A closer look at Mendes’ client list will show a number of exceptional players, and many that would fit Aston Villa’s bill of signing young footballers who are eager to develop. AC Milan’s Rafael Leão and Frankfurt’s Andre Silva are two names that instantly spring out of the list.
But also in that list, is 31-year-old Diego Costa, who is now into the last year of his contract with Atletico Madrid. The forward managed 1,808 minutes of football at the Wanda Metropolitano last season, and with the recent arrival of Luis Suarez and the emergence of Joao Felix, could find his game-time reduced further this season.
The transfer outlay for Aston Villa would be relatively low, but Costa would be required to take a significant pay cut to the rumoured £265,000 a week that he is currently earning to return to the Premier League.
It certainly would be another ‘statement signing’ in a summer full of them for Dean Smith and the transfer committee – however unlikely it might seem at a first glance.
