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"He’s the sort of player you hate if he plays against you but wish with every bit of your soul he was in your team"
KTBFFHSWE 10 years ago Edited
Chelsea FC, Sweden 52 2449

Diego Costa, left, clashed with Liverpool's Jordan Henderson in the tunnel after last week's 1-1 draw at Anfield. Photograph: Carl

Perhaps the only surprising thing about the news Diego Costa and Jordan Henderson were involved in a tunnel bust-up after the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final
was that it had not happened sooner. The tension on the pitch had been
stewing nicely, the pair going nose-to-nose at one point like a pair of
posturing boxers at a weigh-in, all bravado and
my-dad-could-beat-up-your-dad, but waiting until later to take swings at
each other. While the details of the set-to did not exactly sound like
the most heinously violent of all time, with some pushing and shoving
but no punches thrown, that hardly seems to matter.

The point is that the pair were continuing the fine tradition of the
fixture, an uncommon rivalry full of needle that developed over those
years when Liverpool and Chelsea seemed to play each other every second
week, as the teams and supporters got to know then grew to despise each other.
Costa seems to be the perfect man to continue this tradition. He is
6ft 2in of walking aggro, a man just as ripe for a wind-up as he is
likely to do the winding. He’s the sort of player you hate if he plays
against you but wish with every bit of your soul he was in your team,
and not just because he is so good. Graeme Souness commented last week
that Arsenal were a team of “son in laws”, nice young men among whom
nary a rascal is to be found, and he did not mean it as a compliment.
Costa is the rascal’s rascal, poking and prodding and pushing and
generally just being an enormously entertaining bastard – but if he was
in your team, he would be your bastard.

“Diego Costa says he never takes his work home with him. Which is probably a good thing,” wrote Sid Lowe
of the Brazilian-Spaniard when he was at Atlético Madrid. “If he did,
he might walk through the door, goad the dog with a stick,
surreptitiously elbow his wife out of the way on the stairs, shrug his
shoulders innocently as she lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom and
whisper insults to his children, look the other way and whistle when
they burst into tears.”

Henderson is by no means the first player to attempt a square-go in
the tunnel with our man. A couple of years ago the Real Betis defender
Antonio Amaya made a rick that resulted in a goal for Costa, for which
he was extremely grateful, it seems. “He was shouting and thanking me
for the gift,” Amaya said. “If my team-mates had not held me back, I
would have killed him. That shows what kind of person he is: he has no
heart and no shame.” Damien Perquis, one of those team-mates, offered
the profound understatement: “Costa is a difficult player to put up
with.”

Quite so. He is a pest, an annoyance, the sort of player who
irritates you even before he scores a goal, which he has already done 17
times in 19 league starts this season. He is the sort of player whose
joy at scoring seems to be amplified by irking his opponents, and like
Jimmy “The Gent” Conway, you get the impression he roots for the bad
guys in the movies. His coach at Valladolid, José Luis Mendilibar, said
Costa had that “mala leche”, which translates as bad milk, but basically means an “edge, nastiness”.
Costa has become such a target that Fenerbahce’s Bruno Alves, the
Portuguese bruiser never shy of a robust challenge himself, laid a
two-foot reducer on him in a pre-season friendly, but this was only
after Costa had scored a quite brilliant solo goal, barrelling through
the Turkish defence like the boulder from Indiana Jones and finishing
unerringly. It was Costa in a nutshell.

Costa is now such a part of the Chelsea-Liverpool enmity the Kop had a
new song about him in the first leg last week – one that was not
especially complimentary about his appearance – but you wonder why they
bothered. If you try to rile him, it seems he will score, give you a
thump, engineer a sending-off, or possibly all three; whatever, it
probably is not going to end well for you.

Of course he probably could not get away with any of this if he was
not so good, but he very much is, and it’s the way he plays that makes
him most entertaining. He is rough in both senses of the word, and while
he has intelligence, a neat touch and scalpel-like accuracy in his
finishing, he does not have a massive amount of finesse but a largely
visceral, unpolished style that makes him stand out in a world where
technical proficiency is king.

“I wasn’t coached,” he said this season. “I think when you are
developed at an academy it shapes you and gives you a certain education.
You need discipline, so there is a downside of never having a formal
education, but there’s also advantages; you learn about the tricks of
the game quicker, and you become smarter by playing on the streets
against older guys.”

“Nobody gave Costa anything for free,” José Mourinho said after
signing him from Atlético in the summer. “He has always had to fight a
lot … he is not afraid of anything; he is ready for everything.”
Call him smart, call him dirty, call him a cheat. Diego Costa
is the sort of footballer we should all want to watch, hugely talented,
aggravation incarnate and absolutely perfect for Chelsea v Liverpool.

-http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/jan/26/diego-costa-rascal-chelsea-liverpool-capital-one-cup-nick-miller

An interesting article from the Guardian about Costa. As the title suggest, and I believe it to be true, he's a great access for Chelsea but a pain in the ass for many other teams. What are your thoughts about him after todays Liverpool clash in the FA cup, in where he played rough even compared to his usual standards?

0
  • History
Showing previous versions of this text.

Diego Costa, left, clashed with Liverpool's Jordan Henderson in the
tunnel after last week's 1-1 draw at Anfield. Photograph: Carl
Recine/Action Images

Perhaps the only surprising thing about the news Diego Costa and Jordan Henderson were involved in a tunnel bust-up after the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final
was that it had not happened sooner. The tension on the pitch had been
stewing nicely, the pair going nose-to-nose at one point like a pair of
posturing boxers at a weigh-in, all bravado and
my-dad-could-beat-up-your-dad, but waiting until later to take swings at
each other. While the details of the set-to did not exactly sound like
the most heinously violent of all time, with some pushing and shoving
but no punches thrown, that hardly seems to matter.

The point is that the pair were continuing the fine tradition of the
fixture, an uncommon rivalry full of needle that developed over those
years when Liverpool and Chelsea seemed to play each other every second
week, as the teams and supporters got to know then grew to despise each other.

Costa seems to be the perfect man to continue this tradition. He is
6ft 2in of walking aggro, a man just as ripe for a wind-up as he is
likely to do the winding. He’s the sort of player you hate if he plays
against you but wish with every bit of your soul he was in your team,
and not just because he is so good. Graeme Souness commented last week
that Arsenal were a team of “son in laws”, nice young men among whom
nary a rascal is to be found, and he did not mean it as a compliment.
Costa is the rascal’s rascal, poking and prodding and pushing and
generally just being an enormously entertaining bastard – but if he was
in your team, he would be your bastard.

“Diego Costa says he never takes his work home with him. Which is probably a good thing,” wrote Sid Lowe
of the Brazilian-Spaniard when he was at Atlético Madrid. “If he did,
he might walk through the door, goad the dog with a stick,
surreptitiously elbow his wife out of the way on the stairs, shrug his
shoulders innocently as she lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom and
whisper insults to his children, look the other way and whistle when
they burst into tears.”

Henderson is by no means the first player to attempt a square-go in
the tunnel with our man. A couple of years ago the Real Betis defender
Antonio Amaya made a rick that resulted in a goal for Costa, for which
he was extremely grateful, it seems. “He was shouting and thanking me
for the gift,” Amaya said. “If my team-mates had not held me back, I
would have killed him. That shows what kind of person he is: he has no
heart and no shame.” Damien Perquis, one of those team-mates, offered
the profound understatement: “Costa is a difficult player to put up
with.”

Quite so. He is a pest, an annoyance, the sort of player who
irritates you even before he scores a goal, which he has already done 17
times in 19 league starts this season. He is the sort of player whose
joy at scoring seems to be amplified by irking his opponents, and like
Jimmy “The Gent” Conway, you get the impression he roots for the bad
guys in the movies. His coach at Valladolid, José Luis Mendilibar, said
Costa had that “mala leche”, which translates as bad milk, but basically means an “edge, nastiness”.

Costa has become such a target that Fenerbahce’s Bruno Alves, the
Portuguese bruiser never shy of a robust challenge himself, laid a
two-foot reducer on him in a pre-season friendly, but this was only
after Costa had scored a quite brilliant solo goal, barrelling through
the Turkish defence like the boulder from Indiana Jones and finishing
unerringly. It was Costa in a nutshell.

Costa is now such a part of the Chelsea-Liverpool enmity the Kop had a
new song about him in the first leg last week – one that was not
especially complimentary about his appearance – but you wonder why they
bothered. If you try to rile him, it seems he will score, give you a
thump, engineer a sending-off, or possibly all three; whatever, it
probably is not going to end well for you.

Of course he probably could not get away with any of this if he was
not so good, but he very much is, and it’s the way he plays that makes
him most entertaining. He is rough in both senses of the word, and while
he has intelligence, a neat touch and scalpel-like accuracy in his
finishing, he does not have a massive amount of finesse but a largely
visceral, unpolished style that makes him stand out in a world where
technical proficiency is king.

“I wasn’t coached,” he said this season. “I think when you are
developed at an academy it shapes you and gives you a certain education.
You need discipline, so there is a downside of never having a formal
education, but there’s also advantages; you learn about the tricks of
the game quicker, and you become smarter by playing on the streets
against older guys.”

“Nobody gave Costa anything for free,” José Mourinho said after
signing him from Atlético in the summer. “He has always had to fight a
lot … he is not afraid of anything; he is ready for everything.”

Call him smart, call him dirty, call him a cheat. Diego Costa
is the sort of footballer we should all want to watch, hugely talented,
aggravation incarnate and absolutely perfect for Chelsea v Liverpool.

-http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/jan/26/diego-costa-rascal-chelsea-liverpool-capital-one-cup-nick-miller

An interesting article from the Guardian about Costa. As the title suggest, and I believe it to be true, he's a great access for Chelsea but a pain in the ass for many other teams. What are your thoughts about him after todays Liverpool clash in the FA cup, in where he played rough even compared to his usual standards?

Comments
Marcus2011 10 years ago
Chelsea FC, England 277 6501

Lol nandaYnwa

When Suarez made racist remarks about Evra , whole Liverpool team were defending him with a club and fans . When Suarez clearly bitten Ivanovic, again all the fans and club were backing him . Therefore , no , you as Liverpool fan in no position to accuse us of being blind with biased opinions . Relax with your epic hypocrite speech .

We don't need Liverpool fans or club to admit , we want FA Actions . Where are they ? Why is Mourinho being fined for talking about referee and Brendad Rodgers does Not ? Why ? WTF is this .

6
Dynastian98 10 years ago
Real Madrid 483 7140

We are all biased....

L'pool fans will defend Suarez biting Ivanovic
Chelsea fans will defend Costa stomping others
Madrid fans will defend Ronaldo kicking Edimar

We're no different from each other. We all know now that Costa made a mistake and will most likely be punished for it. Let's just move on, this discussion is going nowhere at this rate.

0
chelsea8 10 years ago
Chelsea, Iran 17 2219

keep calm chelsea fans there is only one explanation for why they always hating on us and the explanation is they hate us cuz they A N U S, seriously though costa is now banned for the city game hahah they always want to screw us i'm not mad anymore i guess we have to accept that the FA and the refs always want to fuck us over.

0
RealMadrid17 10 years ago
Real Madrid 20 755

I dont hate Chelsea. I respect them. I enjoy watching them play

0
tiki_taka 10 years ago Edited
Barcelona, France 367 9768

Why should he get a league ban while it happened in capital cup ? This is non-sense from FA if its true, why even apply this post games sanctions, the red should have been given on the game and the ref is the only responsible of Costa not being sent off.
All this stupid post game decisions while its clear that only applying camera would end this, why not applying this on denied goals, wrong offsides, uncalled handballs...

The only reason he got sanctioned is because the game was watched by millions of people arround the world, if it was a Stoke City - West Brom no one would get ever a post game sanction, this is creating discussion on social networks ( money + big publicity ), media will throw the stinky meat to the hungry mass and get money, FA old bastards will look as people who do their jobs and get justice to the game ( Which is false ) and one player would get sacrified to accomplish all this, if he has already a bad reputation then its easy buisness...

Not defending Costa though, but for me he should get no sanctions, getting his reputation for the future calls he would get is already enough, refs are already hinking twice before whistling in his favour and maybe some would book him faster, but just keep those old guys ( FA ) from deciding while they are comfortable in their sofas, just to please the majority ( Other teams fans ).

The ref judged ( wrongly ) that he didnt deserve a red, since FA ignored and insulted his judgement by giving theirs, then they should follow their logic and give sanction to the ref for not doing his job ( wont happen = who cares ? = No money or communication on it ).

This reminds me of Suarez gate, and even before, Maradona was using Cocaine and everyone secretly knew it since he had bad frienships in Napoli, many rich people at the time were using Cocaine even players ( not for sportive use, just for fun and party ), FIFA waited till his last World Cup to give him the shame of his life in his last World Cup while he just complained about Football corruption and many wrong things in Football, they broke him while he went training hard for more than 6 month, he was ready to write his last Chapter, im not in favour of using drugs but why do it to him on world cup ? Why making him a hero instead of a cheat when he lifted WC and was the best player ( Hand of God ) and then demolishing him few month he stood up against corruption ?
Blatter wanted publicity, plus when you give sanction to a star, you give the impression that everything works well in the game management ( a complete joke ), and make the Poor Bueno aires proletarian kid pay for his critics to the system.

If he did not complain about Fifa corruption, nobody would have controled him...

Sorry for the off topic but all this to say that political sanctions has nothing to do in Football, give the ref full credit and weapons to do the perfect choice, and let those old bastards away from pitch decisions...

The mass is used to punish people and many are thrown to them unfairly at times, i have some friends fan of Rugby and they banter me b saying that Football is a game of pussies and im a little agreeing with them lately.

Costa un-sportsmanship in game is a thing, political sanctions and controversy over the game itself is another thing, i would rather back Costa over FA old guys...

10
  • History
Showing previous versions of this text.

Why should he get a league ban while it happened in capital cup ? This is non-sense from FA if its true, why even apply this post games sanctions, the red should have been given on the game and the ref is the only responsible of Costa not being sent off.
All this stupid post game decisions while its clear that only applying camera would end this, why not applying this on denied goals, wrong offsides, uncalled handballs...

The only reason he got sanctioned is because the game was watched by millions of people arround the world, if it was a Stoke City - West Brom no one would get ever a post game sanction, this is creating discussion on social networks ( money + big publicity ), media will throw the stinky meat to the hungry mass and get money, FA old bastards will look as people who do their jobs and get justice to the game ( Which is false ) and one player would get sacrified to accomplish all this, if he has already a bad reputation then its easy buisness...

Not defending Costa though.

Why should he get a league ban while it happened in capital cup ? This is non-sense from FA if its true, why even apply this post games sanctions, the red should have been given on the game and the ref is the only responsible of Costa not being sent off.
All this stupid post game decisions while its clear that only applying camera would end this, why not applying this on denied goals, wrong offsides, uncalled handballs...

The only reason he got sanctioned is because the game was watched by millions of people arround the world, if it was a Stoke City - West Brom no one would get ever a post game sanction, this is creating discussion on social networks ( money + big publicity ), media will throw the stinky meat to the hungry mass and get money, FA old bastards will look as people who do their jobs and get justice to the game ( Which is false ) and one player would get sacrified to accomplish all this, if he has already a bad reputation then its easy buisness...

Not defending Costa though, but for me he should get no sanctions, getting his reputation for the future calls he would get is already enough, refs are already hinking twice before whistling in his favour and maybe some would book him faster, but just keep those old guys ( FA ) from deciding while they are comfortable in their sofas, just to please the majority ( Other teams fans ).

The ref judged ( wrongly ) that he didnt deserve a red, since FA ignored and insulted his judgement by giving theirs, then they should follow their logic and give sanction to the ref for not doing his job ( wont happen = who cares ? = No money or communication on it ).

This reminds me of Suarez gate, and even before, Maradona was using Cocaine and everyone secretly knew it, many rich people at the time were using Cocaine even players ( not for sportive use, just for fun and party ), FIFA waited till his last World Cup to give him the shame of his life in his last World Cup while he just complained about Football corruption and many wrong things in Football, they broke him while he went training hard for more than 6 month, he was ready to write his last Chapter, im not in favour of using drugs but why on world cup ? Why making him a hero when he lifted WC and was the best player ( Hand of God ) and then demolishing him few month he stood up against corruption ?
Blatter wanted publicity, plus when you give sanction to a star, you give the impression that everything works well in the game management ( a complete joke ), and make the Poor Bueno aires proletarian kid pay for his critics to the system.

If he did not complain about Fifa corruption, nobody would have controled him...

Sorry for the off topic but all this to say that political sanctions has nothing to do in Football, give the ref full credit and weapons to do the perfect choice, and let those old bastards away from pitch decisions...

The mass is used to punish people and many are thrown to them unfairly at times, i have some friends fan of Rugby and they banter me b saying that Football is a game of pussies and im a little agreeing with them lately.

Costa un-sportsmanship in game is a thing, political sanctions and controversy over the game itself is another thing, i would rather back Costa over FA old guys...

Marcus2011 10 years ago
Chelsea FC, England 277 6501

@tiki

"All this stupid post game decisions while its clear that only applying camera would end this, why not applying this on denied goals, wrong offsides, uncalled handballs..."

Exactly hypocrisy of dirty and corrupted FA . Damn old bastards who always trying to sugar coat themselves as fair and balanced organization ! They are money hungry old a*s wipes !

0
Gustavo 10 years ago
Liverpool 2 234

This forum is filled with bias, always has but lately it has become a little overwhelming. There are actually threads here that have fans using "yes it is" , " no it isn't" arguments for 4, 5 pages. And when it's time to pick best players for something, it actually becomes embarrassing.

"When Suarez clearly bitten Ivanovic, again all the fans and club were backing him"
"L'pool fans will defend Suarez biting Ivanovic"

Never happened.

0
20yrsmoreliver 10 years ago Edited
2 9

@Marcus2011
In fact, Liverpool's fans do have a reason to bash chelsea coz chelsea keep killing their hopes.
Last year: EPL (they probably need to wait 20 more years lol)
This year: capital one (probably the best hope for them this year)

0
  • History
Showing previous versions of this text.

@Marcus2011In fact, Liverpool's fans do have a reason to bash chelsea coz chelsea keep killing their hopes. Last year: EPL (they probably need to wait 20 more years lol)This year: capital one (probably the best hope for them this year)

tiki_taka 10 years ago
Barcelona, France 367 9768

@Gustavo That was the main reason why Suarez left Liverpool...

0
KTBFFHSWE 10 years ago Edited
Chelsea FC, Sweden 52 2449

@tiki_taka +1000

This is a move that stinks of hypocrisy and double standards.. Costa was targeted throughout both legs by Liverpool's Martin Skrtel and now he faces a three-game suspension, starting with Saturday's crunch game with Manchester City. On top of that Chelsea were denied 2 clear penalties in the game. Not a word is being spoken about that however.

Instead FA come up with the quickest ban decision ever, even though this happened in the Cup.

0
  • History
Showing previous versions of this text.

@tiki_taka +1000

This is a move that stinks of hypocrisy and double
standards, Costa was targeted throughout both legs by Liverpool's Martin Skrtel and now faces a three-game suspension, starting with
Saturday's crunch game with Manchester City. On top of that Chelsea were denied 2 clear penalties in the game. Not a word is being spoken about that however.

Instead FA come up with the quickest ban decision ever, even though this happened in the Cup.

@tiki_taka +1000

This is a move that stinks of hypocrisy and double
standards, Costa was targeted throughout both legs by Liverpool's Martin Skrtel and now faces a three-game suspension, starting with Saturday's crunch game with Manchester City. On top of that Chelsea were denied 2 clear penalties in the game. Not a word is being spoken about that however.

Instead FA come up with the quickest ban decision ever, even though this happened in the Cup.

KTBFFHSWE 10 years ago
Chelsea FC, Sweden 52 2449

Or as Ashley Cole put it^

0
KTBFFHSWE 10 years ago
Chelsea FC, Sweden 52 2449

3 years ago ;)

0
JuanMata10 10 years ago
Chelsea, Austria 17 1696

@nanda: We admit that what Costa did was wrong, he deserves a ban. However, it's unfair how the FA is trying to charge him for misconduct in record time, while it took them so long to sort out the Suarez incident. It's the same with Mourinho's campaign comments at the end of last year, but he wasn't charged until the day before yesterday. And now they want to charge Costa within 3 days.. don't you think this is unjust? Why are only Chelsea-related persons getting charged? Why did they not take action when Charlie Adam RKO'd Sanchez? Why wasn't Wenger charged for pushing Mourinho? Why is Brendan Rodgers allowed to speak about referees without getting punished? See the pattern?

6
Dynastian98 10 years ago
Real Madrid 483 7140

^^ +1.

0
Marcus2011 10 years ago
Chelsea FC, England 277 6501

Juan +1

0
AlexBatak 10 years ago
Chelsea, Italy 204 2707

Anyone remember this?

4
tiki_taka 10 years ago
Barcelona, France 367 9768

The irony of this is that when you dont get sent off in a game, the sanction is even worst than if you got a straight red, what kind of logic is this ?
Better ask the ref to send you off instead of getting a +3 games ban by Football politics...

0
Tuanis 10 years ago
Manchester United, England 87 2311

Wow... people overreacting everywhere.

What is this hate FA has been given for handing a regular sanction (as they should have) to Costa? Would you rather have a league like La Liga were no sanctions at all are given after the game if the ref doesnt report it?

What exactly is wrong with what the FA did? They gave out a sanction, they do all the time, big games or small irrelevant games. People saying FA has a complot against big teams or big players are overreacting a bit. They cant give sanctions to every player that does something questionably wrong, they need to be sure about it.

@tiki:

Cup sanctions apply in almost every single league for league games, nobody cares about cup games so it is a nice way to control going nuts.

Applying cameras to resolve other game incidents as you mentioned not only is forbidden by FIFA but it is also very hard to decide what to do with certain plays if they would be able to resolve those matters.

There have been tons of sanctions for smaller teams in irrelevant games, it has nothing to do with the popularity of the match.

It is not the ref's fault not giving Costa a red card, it was a play that could only be well appreciated with various camera angles. They are not all mighty, it is a very hard job to do.

In the end, there is no reason to lose your mind over a deserved sanction. FA did what they had to do.

0
Dynastian98 10 years ago
Real Madrid 483 7140

@Tuanis

Costa did deserve the punishment for his actions. But if he is to be punished, then every other incident similar to this must be punished as well. Of course Chelsea supporters will feel unjustified because there were other incidents of players brutally tackling or harming Chelsea players (cue Aguero vs. Luiz) where the opposition player went unpunished. And I'm sure you can also find occasions where Chelsea players went unpunished (Cahill stomp, forgot which match. I've seen it though, I'm not making it up. I'll post picture later if I can find one).

The problem is this 'double standard' by the FA. Brendan Rodgers is allowed to criticize referees but Mourinho will be fined frequently? That's quite harsh. Regardless of the fact that Mou has a reputation of picking on referees, Mou shouldn't be the only one punished. Just because Wenger doesn't have a nasty reputation doesn't mean he should be allowed to get away with shoving Jose Mourinho. Just because Aguero doesn't have the 'dirty, dirty player' reputation like Costa doesn't mean he shouldn't be punished for stomping with two feet on the back of David Luiz's thigh. Either no one is punished or everyone is punished. Simple as that.

6