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La Liga Leaks: Costa hints at Chelsea exit, plus Barca’s long list of strikers

Atletico Madrid have either been given a huge green light in their battle to bring Diego Costa back to El Calderon or the Spaniard has accidentally caused speculation due to his lack of English. Everyone’s favourite pantomime villain, who has had moments of magic at Chelsea, uploaded a photo to his Instagram with the following caption: “Thank you very much for all my friends.”

Now, translated literally into Spanish, that message is pretty clear: I’m going. Of course it could be a simple case of him using the wrong word and all these rumours are baseless. Maybe he meant to say he was with all his friends but, I don’t know, it personally feels like a goodbye. Interesting to note he also changed his profile photo which was of him wearing a Chelsea shirt to a default football one instead. Could Costa AND Kevin Gameiro join Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres at Atletico? What a quartet that would be.

Barcelona’s hunt for a centre forward was proving to be difficult before they signed Andre Gomes for €60m, and it doesn’t look like getting any easier now. While the lure of playing at the Camp Nou alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar isn’t a tough sell to a player, offering said player’s club peanuts isn’t going to wash. They’ve lost out on Nolito, Luciano Vietto and Gameiro due to a limited budget already.

SPORT claim there are/were 37 names on the list of possible striker options for Barcelona this summer. It seems the majority of them are going to cost at least €20m, a quantity the Catalan club don’t have to spend right now, unless they let someone go. That’s why the name of Mario Gomez stands out as he could arrive as part of a swap deal for Cristian Tello. The German’s wage demands would need to be lowered as there’s very little room for big earners, and less so for ones who will largely play a secondary role.

One of the names touted to leave the Camp Nou this summer is Arda Turan but sporting director Roberto Fernandez seemed to indicate that the Turkish international still had a future at the club. “Arda’s situation hasn’t changed. He had a complicated year because of the FIFA-imposed ban but we’re convinced his performances will be very good. We hope to see the Arda we saw at Atletico.” When asked if Turan could still leave the club he said, “We aren’t thinking about that. We hope he has a good season and helps contribute to the squad.” Unless someone bids €30m, then he’s probably off.

Other news and rumours:

- Sevilla offered to make Gameiro the highest paid player in the squad but he turned it down. He wants to join Atletico Madrid. (AS)

- Jese Rodriguez’s agent met with Real Madrid to discuss his client’s exit from the club. He’s set to sign a new deal and be loaned out, or sold with an option to buy him back at a future date. He has offers from the Premier League. (MARCA)

- Valencia are hopeful of signing at least one of Martin Montoya and Cristian Tello from Barcelona. (Plaza Deportiva)

- Las Palmas are in advanced talks to secure the signing of Kevin-Prince Boateng. (AS)

- Swansea have entered the race to sign Fernando Llorente. He was very close to signing for Real Sociedad. (Estadio Deportivo)

- Paco Jemez is feeling a sense of deja vu as new club Granada have reportedly signed two Chinese players without his knowledge. “I didn’t ask for these players, nor do I know them.” (MARCA)