Transfer Gossip: Real Madrid 'close' to Eden Hazard deal, why Costa reportedly wants to leave Chelsea, Aubameyang latest

On the face of it, Diego Costa appears to have a nice life. He is financially secure, he’s top of the league, he’s Chelsea’s top scorer, he’s got a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter; he’s probably even got a friend somewhere. But unseen to the public, Diego’s life is touched by a terrible tragedy that means he can never be truly happy.

And the Sun has today revealed it: Diego Costa is being cruelly, unforgivably, irrevocably deprived of barbecues.

The Spanish Brazilian has reportedly “told friends” (see, we told you he had a friend – hooray!) that he will leave Chelsea this summer because he is “sick to the back teeth” of the English weather.

A “source” close to Diego then reveals the gory details of the striker’s life of hardship in the urban jungle of Kensington.

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“His house is not far from the Chelsea stadium and he doesn’t have a huge garden. Diego loves having barbecues. His friends back in Madrid are all enjoying Spring time and it makes him miss it even more,” explained the source.

We said the same as you – this weekend was scorchio, Diego! But no, not good enough.

The source continued, “Even though it has been nice for the past few days, sometimes you can go for more than a week without seeing the sunshine and it affects him.”

Meanwhile, the Sun points out, ominously, that Chinese outfit Tianjin Quanjian can offer Costa a £250,000-a-week pay packet along with “a steamy sub-tropical climate with summer temperatures of 40 plus degrees”. Let’s hope they also provide sun cream.

Weirdly, Costa’s same mate seems to have also spoken to the Express, because they have some similar but different quotes from “a source close to the striker”, who says: “Diego has never really liked it in London. He is a guy from the streets, from Brazil initially, so he likes to be able to sit outside during the day like they do there, and in Spain. You can’t do that so often in England with the weather here.”

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The Express, unfailingly patriotic rag that it is, seems rather offended by this remark, saying the comments come “despite the fact that on September 13 last year the UK had its hottest September day for almost 70 years”. Quite right too. It’s just like watching living in Brazil.

And today’s Hot Football Transfer Gossip gets worse for Chelsea fans… a lot worse. Because in addition to Costa’s imminent departure, the Blues are also being tipped to lose Eden Hazard.

The Mirror says Real Madrid “increasingly believe” (so they believed it before, and now they believe it even more) they will land the Belgian playmaker this summer in a record-breaking £120m deal.

The Bernabeu giants will reportedly throw Alvaro Morata into any deal as a makeweight, and he can at least replace Costa up front, but does he know about the dangers of leaving Madrid for London?? Does he know about the lack of barbecues??

Moving away from Chelsea’s woes, as entertaining as they are, we learn that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has struck a blow to Manchester City, Manchester United and various other clubs that want to buy him, by snubbing them all in favour of a move to Real Madrid. Or Barcelona.

These are the only two clubs the Gabonese goal machine is prepared to leave Borussia Dortmund for, according to the club’s chief executive Hans-Joachim Watze, reports the Mail.

Meanwhile, highly rated Anderlecht midfielder Youri Tielmans – a target for Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea – is in “advanced talks” with Monaco, says the Star. It’s about time the Ligue 1 leaders were tipped to buy some players rather than sell them.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid have offered Antoine Griezmann a “huge” new deal in a bid to keep him at the club (Mirror), Man Utd’s on-loan forward Adnan Januzaj is set for a permanent summer move to a club in either France, Italy or Germany (Mail) and Everton boss Ronald Koeman is trying to tie up a deal for Southampton’s second-choice right-back Cuco Martina (Star). We’re not sure why.

@darlingkevin