Antonio Conte has achieved something great in winning the Premier League this season. You may harrumph and point out that he arrived to an expensively assembled side who had won the Premier League the season previous, and could make an assault on the league without the distraction of European competition.
While he undoubtedly had the tools at his disposal to win the league, he also had to manage a club whose players had downed theirs under Jose Mourinho. He also had to manage Diego Costa on a daily basis, who appears to be as consistent a nutcase off the pitch as he is on it.
That is laid bare as truth in a fabulous report in today's Telegraph by Sam Wallace.
Wallace was at the Hawthorns for Chelsea's title celebrations on Friday night, and the utterly mad antics of Diego Costa caught the eye.
Costa led the circus in the dressing room, and Wallace writes about it fabulously:
When Costa later removed a fire extinguisher from the wall and aimed the nozzle at his manager, and a group of us leant in close to catch Conte’s words, it was Atkins, a former Foreign Office press aide, who spotted the danger first. “Diego!” he shouted, and Luiz reached over to gently remove the fire extinguisher, as one might guide an eight-year-old with behavioural issues away from the kitchen knife rack.
While Conte continued to take questions, Costa occupied himself for a while doing pull-ups on a scaffold structure that had been built in the room. Tiring once more of the delay, Costa thrust that preternaturally aged face of his into the group of reporters, and towards his manager. “Diego is No 1!” he shouted. “Diego loves you!
“Yes, Diego,” the Chelsea manager said plaintively, “I love you too.”
Some of his antics were caught on camera, too. These included bizarrely washing his eyes out with Lucozade Sport....
Just Diego Costa washing his eyes out with Gatorade!
?????? pic.twitter.com/IkfLt3ssPH
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) May 14, 2017
...and, er, this:
Costa forgetting he was live on Sky Sports #Chelsea #FNF pic.twitter.com/FaXHUqsm4x
— Hamzah Bhuta (@Hamzah_bhuta_67) May 12, 2017
Costa, however, has been critical on the field, a testament to Conte's management.
Read the full report over on the Telegraph's website.
