Diego Coata may leave Chelsea

What must Diego Costa think? Chelsea
are fully within their rights to tell
Atlético Madrid to do one with their
approaches, but now that story appears to
have reached a dead end, the cantankerous 27-
year-old Spain striker is finding out that
Antonio Conte has an eye on several other
attacking options.
First up, Romelu Lukaku is a target – but
would the Belgian really want to come back to
Stamford Bridge, and face a battle for a starting
position when he is the undisputed first choice
at Everton? That may just be a plan B if
Chelsea’s move for Álvaro Morata fails to
come up trumps.
Morata has only rejoined Real Madrid after
they activated his buy-back clause at Juventus,
but Chelsea have already made two bids and
may go back for a third. Let’s not forget he
was chosen in Spain’s Euro 2016 squad instead
of Costa. That’s before mentioning Michy
Batshuayi’s solid debut in Chelsea’s friendly
win over Wolfsberger last night.
Conte is in no mood to sell Andreas
Christensen to Borussia Mönchengladbach,
though. The 20-year-old is halfway through a
two season loan at the Bundesliga club, who
have been sufficiently impressed to offer
almost £15m. That’s not enough in Chelsea’s
books.
After a 1-0 humbling against former club
Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola has decided he
needs to bring craft to his Manchester City
midfield and will table a bid for Real Madrid’s
Toni Kroos. Reunification is in fashion.
Guardiola is also reeling from the news that his
first game will not be against The Big Sam , with
Sunderland in talks with David Moyes about
taking over at the Stadium of Light.
Hull, worryingly, are not being linked with
anybody, despite eight of the 14 senior players
under contract being injured and just over
three weeks to go before the season starts. At
least Steve Bruce is staying, though.
Oh Nacer, Nacer Chadli has caught the eye of
Swansea, who may be willing to fork out £10m
to purchase the Belgium midfielder from
Tottenham. Daniel Levy would rather £15m,
mind. Action is imminent at West Brom, where
Saido Berahino might finally be sold 347
windows after a move from the Hawthorns
was initially mooted and Jeffrey Schlupp could
be on his way in to Tony Pulis’ squad after an
offer was made to Leicester.
And how could a Rumour Mill end without a
mention of Manchester United? What a
summer it has been at Old Trafford. Zlatan
Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Eric Bailly,
possibly Paul Pogba and now – perhaps the
biggest one of all – Joshua Bohui is set to join
from Brentford. Actually, that’s maybe even a
tad too facetious for this column. Bohui is a
promising 17-year-old winger who may end up
being rather good, and will go into the
academy.