Atletico Madrid officially make £54million bid for Diego Costa despite having a transfer ban till January
ATLETICO MADRID have made a £54million bid for Diego Costa and are awaiting a response from Chelsea.
According to the La Liga club, who have a transfer ban until January, want to re-unite the wantaway Blues ace with manager Diego Simeone.
Atletico, are just about to move into their spectacular new stadium, the Wanda Metropolitano near Madrid's airport.
And they are planning a massive party around the occasion, after turning the former athletics stadium into a 67,000-capacity arena.
Atleti are reportedly growing increasingly confident their representatives can do the business and get back the striker who scored 43 goals in La Liga and 11 in the Champions League during his eight seasons at the Vicente Calderon.
The Spanish capital club have drawn their last two games 0-0, failing to hit the net against Valencia in La Liga before picking up the same result against Roma in Europe.
Costa has scored 58 goals for Chelsea since joining the West London club in 2014, for a fee of £32m.
So Antonio Conte's side should make a healthy profit out of a player who has been portrayed as a troublemaker.
Costa was particularly annoyed with Conte's treatment of him as the Italian manager told him his Blues career was over via text message.
Since then Chelsea have brought in Alvaro Morata to bolster their attack and the forward has been in good form for his new club, bagging three goals so far.
Costa's move back to Atletico could open the door for Manchester United to finally sign Antoine Griezmann next summer.
The French striker turned down the opportunity to join United in the summer just gone, as he wanted to remain at Atletico during their transfer ban.