As
Diego Costa attempts to seal his move away from Chelsea, Simon Jordan and
Charlie Nicholas believe that no player is bigger than the club.
The transfer saga took another twist on Friday as the striker asked the
Blues to lower their asking price and said he was being treated like a
criminal, which provoked a burst of laughter in response from manager
Antonio Conte.
Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan was also dismayed by the recent comments
from Costa, and believes that Chelsea and Conte are reacting in the right
way with some strong words on the conduct of some footballers.
"The club is bigger than the players. The manager needs to run the football
operation and no one player - it doesn't matter how big they are - can set a
culture for the other players," he said on The Debate.
"If Costa is trying to assert himself in the dressing room by his
personality or by the manner in which he operates with the manager, this
manager has to take a stance for the wellbeing of the football club.
"I like the way he dealt with that press conference and the way he laughs at
the ridiculous nature of Costa's assertions that he has been treated as a
criminal because ultimately, I'd like to be treated as a criminal on
£150,000 per week while I'm sitting on a beach or driving a jet-ski with a
dog next to me.
"I'm not so sure he will get exactly what he [Costa] wants. He is back
tracking now and he is starting to talk about the fact he might come back
and potentially Chelsea are making it more difficult for him with the price
point which is none of his business.
"Chelsea have the right to set a price point for Costa if they choose too
because they paid for the player in the first place so they have the right
to set a price point that makes sense for them.
"We have this culture in football where players think they are entitled to
be spoken to in a certain way. I know it's not ideal to have a text message
sent to you and we don't know the trail of that but I'm personally sick to
the back teeth of hearing about how players should be spoken to.
"These boys have got to grow up and behave in a certain way. At the end of
the day, if they like it or not, they are still just employees of a football
club and they have to do as they're told."
Soccer Saturday pundit Nicholas echoed the view that no player is bigger
than the club, but does not think that Costa will end up at Everton after
manager Ronald Koeman said he would consider taking the striker on loan.
"This guy has history. He was part of the team that got rid of Jose
Mourinho, who is probably one of the greatest coaches of all time. No one is
bigger than the club, no one is bigger than the game," he added on The
Debate.
"This guy is playing a game. He wanted to go to China. Why? Because he
wanted more money. Chelsea didn't agree with the bigger money and said
'we're not going to let you go yet because you're too big of a player.
You're going to be an established star to win us the title.'
"I think Chelsea and Conte handled that situation really well because he
said 'I am the boss and this is how it's going to be'.
"Koeman would be arguing and fighting with him in 30 minutes. It would be a
clash of personalities immediately. Koeman doesn't stand for anything like
that.
"Costa has isolated himself and I'm actually glad in a way that he has done
this. He has made everything clear that he wants to go to Atletico Madrid
but six months ago, I wanted to go to China.
"There's no way someone like Koeman would be interested in a conversation
with Costa, never mind a deal."
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