La Liga Leaks: Simeone admits he wanted Chelsea’s Costa, Kovacic ‘not for sale’

Diego Simeone finally broke his silence after his taking a break from the media following his second Champions League final defeat. The charming-yet-demanding coach told ‘Espacio Reservado’ he needed time to think about his future in the immediate aftermath of that match and most took that as an indication he might leave Atletico Madrid, as if he’d taken them as far as he could.

This wasn’t the case as Simeone just needed time to recharge his batteries and analyse how he’d take Atletico forward again. Perhaps the biggest name he chose to rebuild his project was Diego Costa. “The club worked on the possibility of signing Diego Costa but after the negotiations didn’t advance, during which time we were always open with (Kevin) Gameiro, I pushed exclusively for him to lead our attack this year.”

Mateo Kovacic is one of the forgotten signings from last summer for Real Madrid. He failed to establish himself as a member of the squad and rumours have circulated this month that he could be on his way to Serie A. However the club told MARCA: “Kovacic isn’t for sale and won’t be leaving Madrid.”

Mundo Deportivo claim Jasper Cillessen is an alternative to Diego Alves in Barcelona’s hunt to replace Claudio Bravo. They cite the Dutch newspaper ‘Telegraaf’ as the source for this story with reports a €10m-€12m bid would be enough to seal the deal. Despite this Alves remains the overwhelming favourite to take over from Bravo once his move to Manchester City is finalised.

Valencia CF, who might need a replacement for Alves, have joined Sevilla in the race to sign Diego Lopez from Milan according to ‘Gazette dello Sport’ in Italy. His huge wages make this a difficult operation for Valencia to pull off whereas Sevilla’s first choice to strengthen the goalkeeper area is Joe Hart. Estadio Deportivo say Hart is open to a switch abroad.

Plaza Deportiva’s headline story is that Paco Alcacer is going to stay at Valencia but beyond that, Peter Lim used his last trip to England to enquire about the availability of Juan Mata. The problem for Valencia, much like with Lopez, is that Mata’s wages and projected transfer fee would be way beyond their means unless one or two big stars were to depart the club.