Gossip: Costa's 'head turned' by megabucks China bid, Zlatan 'set for LA switch', Tottenham 'target Douglas Costa'
Diego Costa’s aim has been totally off in recent weeks, with no goals in six games for Chelsea and his shots flying high, wide and anywhere else except the net. Today, the reason for his wayward shooting has been revealed. The Mirror reports that Costa’s head has, officially, “been turned”.
It’s news that should certainly make anyone who has criticised Costa’s lack of goalscoring prowess feel a bit sheepish. We’d like to see how many goals they would score if their head was facing in the wrong direction and they couldn’t look at things properly.
But poor Diego has reportedly been living with, and bravely playing through, this affliction for several weeks, ever since he learned of a lucrative offer to play in China.
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Costa’s head allegedly turned when he found out a Chinese Super League club was willing to pay him £650,000 a week and make him the highest paid player in the world – and it hasn’t turned back.
The problem for Chelsea is that, with their title race with Tottenham becoming increasingly tight, they could really do without a striker whose head is on back to front.
One striker whose head is very much screwed on is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and the Swede’s latest cunning plan for global football domination is to play in America AND the Premier League next season.
The Mail says Zlatan has been offered £5m a year to become “the face” of new MLS side Los Angeles FC next season, but the deal will also include the option of an immediate loan back to Manchester United.
He could stay at Old Trafford until March, when Los Angeles kick off their season, and by which point the Red Devils will almost certainly be out of the Champions League, if they even qualify for it in the first place.
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Man Utd could also lose their other key player, David de Gea, for whom Real Madrid are allegedly planning a record-breaking £60m summer bid – almost double the current highest fee for a goalkeeper.
The Sun says De Gea is the Spanish club’s “top priority”, although if they can’t get him they’ll just sign Thibaut Courtois from Chelsea instead. You already knew that though, didn’t you?
Elsewhere, Tottenham are plotting a £30m move for Bayern Munich’s Brazilian winger Douglas Costa (Mirror) Southampton will compete with Everton, West Ham and Newcastle to sign Swansea’s £35m-rated (how much?!) midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson (Mail) and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger turned down the chance to sign Chelsea lynchpin N’Golo Kante and Monaco star Thomas Lemar for a combined £12.6m two years ago when they were playing for Caen (Sun). Instead, he signed Jeff Reine -Adelaide from Lens on a free transfer, just for the novelty of having a French player called Jeff.
