Diego Costa comes back to haunt Conte as Chelsea look to reduce the Italian’s £9m severance payoff

Chelsea are playing hardball in hopes of getting a discount on the payoff for manager Antonio Conte, according to the Metro.

The Blues would have to pay £9million for the Italian’s last year of his current contract after he signed a new deal after winning the Premier League in 2016/17.

The club wants to haggle with the price because they feel Diego Costa wasn’t treated all that well by Conte and was sold for a low price to Atletico Madrid last season.

The former Juventus manager started off his second season at Chelsea by sending Costa a text message telling him he was not needed at the club.

Costa then returned to Brazil and was eventually sold for £59m to his former club Atletico Madrid but the management is upset with how Conte handled this situation.

The club believes that this conduct dented the club’s position in the deal, especially after the displays by Costa in the current World Cup.

The Spaniard has been great for Atletico and Spain ever since he left the Blues and it does seem like we could have sold him for a lot more had this episode not happened.

While we have targetted Maurizio Sarri as a replacement for Conte, nothing can be done until we remove the former Juventus man.

We do have a history of hiring and firing managers and have spent millions on former managers, asking them to leave the club. So, it might make sense to try and cut the price for Conte but it seems like this is another saga that will go on for a while.