Atlético Madrid

Going to be an amazing atmosphere can't wait! 4.45 am wake up for me!!!! :)

1st half probably put you to sleep...

the best snooze feast ever in football this season.

I actually didn't get up, thank god!

Half of your rumours are true, but the reasons are wrong.

Liverpool attempted to sign Costa last year, which Costa thought about but refused (the offer was like 10x his current salary).

The UEFA BS interference on Courtois' loan puts the ball in Chelsea's court: now Atleti are indebted to Chelsea and will want to "sweeten" any future deals as a "we owe you one". That might take the form of a Costa-for-Torres exchange, or something similar.

Costa for Torres exchange sounds terrible to me. Atletico are a growing team and we need top notch talents if this club ends up wining a major trophy at the end of the season. We don't need Torres because he would bring nothing to this club other then a shadow of what he use to be. I get what you mean but even if they gave us Torres + Cash it just sounds like a s**t deal to me.

I would try to get Lukaku from Chelsea rather then Torres.I feel like if were going to swap lets try to nip a player from Chelsea that's worth it. Lukaku is young and very talented scoring 15+ goals in all competitions both times his been on loan. His a threat aerially and his got size/strength on him not to mention the amount fo havoc he causes in the 18 yard box. He would be my pick to trade with Chelsea for Costa.

The thing is we could possibly lose Courtois on expiring loan deal and his headed back to Chelsea and Costa could be on his way out to Chelsea as well. That's two major players gone at the end of the season.

Lukaku is good, but he's better suited for Chelsea and the Prem than Spain. It took Costa 2 or 3 transfer loans to figure La Liga out, and he's still a little wet behind the ears/naive.

I haven't seen enough Prem-to-La-Liga transfers to come to any reasonable conclusion. But an interesting one is Deulofeu's loan to Everton from Barcelona. He dominated the B squad, but got killed in his few moments last year in the top side. He's done well at Everton but still needs another year or two on loan before I'd think of recalling him.

Plus Atleti couldn't afford him, and he'd be pried away anyway in a year or two if he did have any success.

I hope Costa will stay at Athletico but it definitely sucks about not being able to buy Courtois. As for Torres he may improve back in Spain but Lukaku is also a good choice

Ok then who would you suggest? I mean Torres cannot be our replacement for Costa next season.

For me I would target red hot striker Ciro Immobile. His on fire this season at Torino in Serie A. His my top pick and I would love to see us invest money into him. His finishing is amazing, his loves to dribble and he is a huge threat in the 18 yard box.

On the other case if the Costa-Torres exchange is what's going to happen then I'm sure their is also money coming our way. Torre+ cash and we could also focus on getting Immobile. I wouldn't mind having the experience of Torres and the raw ability of the Italian striker Immobile coming in as Costa's replacements.

Then again I would love a target man. A big CF who can not only out muscle short Spanish defenders but his got the height on them as well and positioning. Someone like Mario Mandžukić but then his success would depend the service of our MF but I don't thing a big CF fits our system because we need a dynamic skillful striker in our team.

Just my opinion.

Edin Dzeko would be a great signing

Who are you talking to?

lol

Anyone? Maybe? I'm hoping for life to sprout here.

@MementoMori Better question is "who are you talking to"? Not enough commentary in here for you?

Anyway, candidates:
* Asenjo is on loan at Villareal.
* Navas (Levante) is available for the fee (not much at all).
* depending on who gets relegated, Marino (Valladolid) has been one of the best in the league
* unsure of Atleti's academy yet

Asenjo's a talent, given the chance i believe he'll prove himself

Asenjo has no knees left. I'd prefer extra depth at that position just in case if Asenjo were recalled.

Oh, also, Adan if Betis get relegated. Though I have the feeling Adan doesn't want to leave no matter what.

I'm pretty sure Courtois has said in an interview that he will only return to Chelsea if he is going to be the starting keeper for sure. I think he will renew his loan. but it would be sick if he joined Athletico on a full deal but I know Chelsea would never sell him completely.

I really wish Chelsea would sell him. Although Keylor Navas or Asenjo would be my top two picks. Asenjo is a gem and would probably be favorite just because his great and he wouldn't cost us a cent to sing considering his on loan. His played nearly every game for them and they are fighting for a European place.

Navas and Assenjo are both great keepers, but wouldn't the best deal would be Costa for Cortouis and and some money? But Chelsea probably wouldn't do that.

@Knownskate See my reply to the post above.
The UEFA bullshite changes everything.

If Atleti get past Chelsea with Courtois in goal, I see Costa going to the Blues (for Torres + Courtois).

@Mt1234
Damn Chelsea! :/

I don't think they should go and buy replacements, just go with what they have and recall Torres and Baptistao from their loans. Then depend on academy players.

Not even secretly

Can't be a secret anymore:p

Me too ! :)

Oh wait, what i'm doing here..

We discretely love Atletico. now that's better put than saying secretly :P

Discreetly*

I hope this reports are true.

Simeone's press officer went on twitter and said "Relax guys, it’s all OK. Just need to fix the post."

Come to think of it, he did play but yet they didn't bitch about it then yet they want to now.

If I was Courtois and I heard Chelsea would deny me the chance of playing in one of the biggest stages in European football, the semi-finals of the UEFA CL league, I would be pissed as hell! Courtois worked his ass off all season in the la liga and UEFA Cl but such a selfish thing to try to do to a young man, I would f*****g leave Chelsea.

He should leave Chelsea.You don't want to play for Jose Moaning Mourinho.

Ok guys, emotions to the side, don't get carried away. That's not how things are between Atletico, Chelsea, and Courtois (and Mourinho has jack to do with it since this has been the set up before Mou returned to Chelsea).

Courtois has repeated MANY times that he is a Chelsea player. He's been VERY FOOKING grateful and appreciative that Chelsea have loaned him out to a side such as Atletico where he has been allowed to develop WITH the squad over MANY years.

And pure respect for Chelsea's handling of this as well. It's completely unprecedented to loan a player 4 years in a row to the same squad right up to the point where the player's contract expires with the parent club and not having played a single match for them while at the same time being recognized as one of the world's top 5 keepers.

The only similar thing I can think of is if Lukaku were to repeatedly be loaned to Everton every year, and the Toffees won Europa League his first 2 years and then won the league and even CL in his 4th year on loan.

I also side with the contract, mainly because I KNOW what loans are like and how helpful they are, so you can't go around badmouthing the club that loaned you one of their promising players or tap him up to try to make the loan permanent.
If I were on Atleti's board, I'd consider not playing him. Keep in mind they CANNOT come up with 3 million quid for a match that should probably allow them to EASILY recoup that amount within the next year (within a month if they were to win the CL or league).

Confirmed by Atleti's president:
"I don’t know how many times I’ve repeated it, Courtois is Chelsea’s player. We’re trying to get him on loan for another season. I think he’ll end up playing against them, but only if we reach an agreement with Chelsea. We’re gentlemen and we observe everything we sign."

I would love to see the quotes from Chelsea representatives saying that Courtois cannot play.

All the statements have been made by Atl's President about he situation.

Where is CFC "bitching" about the situation?

I'd love for him to play. Well deserved for both Atletico and Courtois.

NO ONE from Atletico has said anything bad about Chelsea or made any accusations about the contract and its terms being unfair.
In fact, the opposite (like I mentioned above): if those are the terms in the contract, and UEFA says "you can't restrict Courtois' appearances in the CL in a contract", then Atleti should honour the contract as much as possible.

If I were Chelsea (or ANY fooking club in the world right now, even a Spur or a Gooner) then I'd bitch and complain about UEFA playing supergod of the universe and arbitrarily voiding out parts of a contract between two clubs because they'd rather put their own interests ahead of any bloody thing else.

Both Atleti and Chelsea have been gentlemanly about the situation, both are being placed in a tight bind because neither want to be the bad guy, and neither want to disrespect the terms of a VERY fair loan agreement.

Didn't UEFA say this whole deal is null as it's against their policy?