Sky Sports pundit calls for Liverpool to pull off sensational Chelsea first-teamer deal
By Harry Sykes
Liverpool legend and Sky Sports TV pundit Phil Thompson has called for his former club to try to pull off an audacious bid to bring Chelsea striker Diego Costa to Anfield.
Thompson believes Liverpool could still benefit from an out-and-out striker, with Daniel Sturridge unreliable because of his constant injury problems.
It looks increasingly certain that Diego Costa will be leaving Chelsea after his club signed Alvaro Morata and the striker and the club engaged in a war of words over his potential move to Atletico Madrid.
If he did move to Atletico, he couldn’t play for the club until January because of their transfer ban.
They could still sign him this summer and he would then be free to play for another club on loan for six months.
Phil Thompson has put the idea of Costa making a sensational move to Liverpool out in an interview with the Irish Examiner.
He says that the club tried to sign him before but missed out on a dream pairing with former striker Luis Suarez.
“Dare I say it: Diego Costa signs for Atletico Madrid and then gets loaned out to Liverpool?” Thompson said. “It would be quite a dream, wouldn’t it? I’d take him for six months.
“Going back three or four years when Liverpool were in for Costa, I think we offered 20 million. It was 25 million and the deal never got done. I was amazed. If we’d have had Suarez and Diego Costa, God, they’d have frightened everybody.
“You love these players. Every other supporter moans at them but you know as a Chelsea fan how much Costa will fight for you, do the battling for you.
“Good skills too. Good technique. Is Morata going to be (as effective) when you get into battles in the Premier League? It didn’t matter whether you were playing against Hull City or Manchester United, you knew what you’d get off Costa.”
It’s likely that any Premier League club would jump at the chance of signing Costa after the 28-year-old scored 20 goals in 35 league games.
It is also highly unlikely that Chelsea would let him come back to the Premier League on loan – although with Costa’s move getting increasingly fractious, Costa would probably relish the chance to strike back at his former club.
In other Liverpool news, this international centre-back on the Reds’ radar is set to complete his medical ahead of a move.
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