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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tom Coley

Chelsea can sign the new Diego Costa to correct £216m error and complete Mauricio Pochettino aim

Chelsea Diego Costa Mauricio Pochettino Romelu Lukaku Lautaro Martinez Andre Onana Kalidou Koulibaly Christian Pulisic UEFA Champions League EPL

The year is 2018, Romelu Lukaku is bullying Premier League defences for Manchester United, Kalidou Koulibaly is heading away bombs from the Napoli penalty area, Andre Onana is set for an unexpected run to the Champions League semi-final with Ajax and Diego Costa has been one year away from Chelsea.

Since then things have been quite different. Lukaku has been and gone from England, twice, Koulibaly has continued to garner interest from the top teams before finally completing a move to Chelsea, Onana is a Champions League final worthy goalkeeper and Costa is still running around being Costa.

Despite spending £216m on strikers or players to get goals, the closest anyone has come to matching Costa's 52 goals across three seasons - with two 20 goal a year episodes in there - is 15 from academy star Tammy Abraham. Now Lukaku is 30 and far from a certainty to lead the line for Mauricio Pochettino next year.

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