AC Milan chief executive Marco Fassone has confirmed that the Italian club have held talks with the agent of Chelsea striker Diego Costa, Jorge Mendes.
Mendes does however represent a number of different players, and while Fassone revealed his admiration for Costa, he would not be drawn on the names he had discussed at the meeting. He told Sky Sport Italia (translated by Football-Italia.net);
“I no longer wish to mention names of players at other clubs, because otherwise everyone will get angry. Diego Costa is a very talented player, he is a Chelsea player, we are evaluating various options.”
Mendes has already helped Milan secure the €38million signing of Andre Silva from Porto this summer, and Fassone says they were hoping to use the agent’s services again to sign other players:
“We met with Jorge Mendes because there are many things you can talk about with him. We have done a great deal already, we’ll now see if it’s worth investing further in other areas of the team. We enjoyed this ‘blitz’ with Mendes.”
Costa has not returned for pre-season training with Chelsea after being told by manager Antonio Conte that he has no future at Stamford Bridge. Previous club Atletico Madrid were favourites to sign the 28 year old but the Spanish team’s transfer ban has complicated matters, with Costa seemingly wanting to move back to La Liga in January when Atletico can sign players again.