Chelsea demand Diego Costa return to training

Following comments by Diego Costa in which he essentially begged Chelsea to allow him to move to Atletico Madrid, the London club have shot his request down and demanded the forward to report to training.

Diego Costa's feud with the Chelsea team has been well documented, starting from last season when he had a training ground bust-up with manager Antonio Conte which led to Costa being ousted of the squad for the match against Leicester City. 

After the season ended, Costa fueled the fire between himself and the club after a World Cup qualifying match in which he claimed Conte sent him several text messages saying the forward was no longer needed at the club and was free to move.  

However, Atletico's transfer ban until January 2018 meant that an Atletico return would be a little more complicated. It was reported that Chelsea were unwilling to go through with a deal similar to Atletico Madrid and Barcelona a couple of years back when the Catalan giants were also crippled by a transfer ban but Atletico allowed Arda Turan to depart after the aforementioned transfer ban while an agreement was reached during it. 

Now, according to Spanish newspaper Marca, Chelsea are demanding Costa returns to training. The forward recently expressed his desire to leave again and even said he was mistreated and felt like a criminal. Antonio Conte laughed off these comments.  

A Chelsea spokesperson was quoted by Marca saying: "Our position is very clear. We have said that he is a Chelsea player and he must return to training." 

It remains to be seen if a transfer to Atletico actually goes through, with Diego Simeone also looking reluctant to bring Diego Costa on board after witnessing a clear issue with his attitude.