Liverpool are poised to lock horns with Diego Costa once again, after Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui confirmed he hopes the veteran will be fit for his side’s FA Cup replay with the Reds.
"Diego Costa suffered an injury against Aston Villa,” the Spaniard confirmed in his latest press conference. “He is better and I think he is going to be ready, I hope, for the next match. We will see."
The 34-year-old is very much a pantomime villain when it comes to Liverpool fans, having enjoyed more than one colourful episode with the Reds over the years.
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Winning four of his eight meetings with Liverpool to date, the most famous altercation came in the 2015 League Cup semi-finals when the Spaniard was famously stared down by Jordan Henderson. Yet it’s perhaps forgotten he was later charged with violent conduct and handed a three-game ban for stamping on Emre Can’s ankle in the second leg at Stamford Bridge.
He would also clash with both Steven Gerrard and Martin Skrtel during the same tie, earning the wrath of Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers in the process. Such comments would in turn anger Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.
“He’s an outstanding player, an outstanding footballer, but he obviously has this edge to him,” the Northern Irishman said after the game. “The one with Can was poor, I felt. He could easily have hurdled over the young player, but he directed his studs right on to his ankle, which could have been nasty.
“And the one with Srktel, again, there’s no need to do it. He’s clever enough that the officials don’t see it, but it’s poor by him because he’s an outstanding player, and he doesn’t need to do it. It’s up to the officials, but it certainly would have been a red card. It wasn’t good for the game.”
Rodgers would refuse to criticise Costa further later that month, as he shared his admiration for the Chelsea forward - despite the Spaniard being very much entwined in football’s dark arts.
“There is no needle,” Rodgers said. “I said how good my team was. I made some points that are relevant. The most important thing was my team returning to form.
“I don't want to talk too much about Costa. We were interested in him, he is an outstanding footballer. They all have an edge and you just hope that they don't over step the mark with their behaviour. But he is a wonderful player and that is all I need to say on it.”
Considering Costa would claim he had succeeded Luis Suarez as the Premier League’s bad boy, it’s easy to forget he could have easily partnered the striker at Liverpool in 2013/14 as the Reds nearly won the Premier League title. Or, at the very least, replaced him at Anfield as the Uruguayan controversially tried to force through a £40m and £1 move to Arsenal in the summer of 2013.
Liverpool had scouted Costa extensively as he enjoyed a 20-goal season for Atletico Madrid in 2012/13 and completed all the necessary background checks. Goal would report that while Rodgers had initial reservations, mainly because of the forward’s chequered disciplinary record, the Reds’ recruitment team, led by Michael Edwards, Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter, had compiled an extensive dossier on the then-24-year-old to convince the Northern Irishman that the striker was the player for him.
Holding positive talks with Costa's representatives, Liverpool discovered the existence of a £21.8m release clause. With Suarez pushing to leave, despite their insistence he would not be, and that interest in Costa was to accompany him at Anfield rather than replace him, they triggered the release clause in full in late July and thought they had their man. After all, Atletico were seemingly open to letting Costa leave after bringing in David Villa from Barcelona.
Yet such a pursuit would prove to be anything but straightforward as Atletico later denied they had received the offer and, having sold Costa’s strike-partner Falcao to Monaco, told Spanish newspaper AS that the striker was not for sale.
“Diego Costa is a very important player for Atletico,” the club's sporting director Jose Luis Caminero would insist. “We value him very highly and we are convinced that this year he is going to score a lot of goals with Atletico. He is an idol for the fans. Yes, he’s going to continue.”
Meanwhile, Costa would always play down the possibility of leaving Atletico when returning from the club’s pre-season tour of South America. Speaking to reporters at Madrid Barajas airport, he said: “As I’ve been in Argentina and Uruguay I’ve not heard anything about this.
“I’m happy here, if the club want me to be here, I’m going to be here. I think that the coach (Diego Simeone) counts on all of us, not just me. He knows how important it is to maintain the squad, the fans know it as well.”
A few days later, Costa signed a new three-year extension at Atletico, complete with pay rise, and was declaring how happy he was at the club. Yet, he would complete just one more season with the La Liga outfit, enjoying a career-best 36-goal campaign as he won La Liga and reached the Champions League final, before completing his move to Chelsea.
Looking back on his decision to snub Liverpool, he’d admit during his first season in England: “I was close to leaving Atletico. Liverpool are a great team, but after fighting so hard and overcoming difficulties to get my place at Atletico, how could I leave?
“I thought it was very important to keep growing with Atletico and to play there for many years.”
"I believe Costa has signed an extension,” Rodgers would rue in the summer of 2013 when conceding defeat in Liverpool’s attempts to sign the forward. "There's nothing in terms of players to add.”
So what happened behind the scenes for him to reject a move to Anfield, despite his release clause being activated, only to move on 12 months into his contract extension. In a nutshell, Jose Mourinho.
“Jose Mourinho, recently returned to Chelsea, had also identified Costa as a primary target, a Didier Drogba-style centre-forward around whom he could forge a new winning machine,” Fran Guillen revealed in his biography of the Spain international, entitled ‘Diego Costa: The Art of War’.
“However, Mourinho had yet to persuade the owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, to accelerate his rebuilding plans. In both acquiring new players and moving others on, the process would be gradual.
“If Costa could not be signed [for Chelsea] now, a strategy was needed to ensure he was delayed, and not diverted. Chelsea and Mourinho made their case to Costa and Atletico: turn down Liverpool now and we will sign you – for more money – in 12 months.”
Ultimately, Costa’s agent, Jorge Mendes, also represented Mourinho. He would advise the forward to snub Liverpool in favour of waiting it out for Chelsea. Doubling his wage at Atleti, he went on to enjoy the season of his life, before signing a contract said to be worth £150,000 a week at Stamford Bridge.
Scoring 59 goals from 120 appearances for Chelsea as he won two Premier League titles and the League Cup before falling out with Antonio Conte, Costa will ultimately have no regrets about his decision to reject Liverpool’s advances. Whether he could have made the difference in the 2013/14 season as the Reds fell agonisingly short in pursuit of the title, we’ll never know. If it had been at the cost of an extra year of Suarez, and his extraordinary record-breaking 31-goal campaign, would it have even been worth it?
Liverpool bosses would convince Suarez to stay put for a further season before he left for Barcelona in a £65m deal in the summer of 2014. With Chelsea then snapping up Costa, activating his new £32m release clause, the Reds infamously found themselves rejected by Alexis Sanchez, before they pulled the plug on a deal for Loic Remy and, having already signed Rickie Lambert, were left to choose between Samuel Eto’o and Mario Balotelli as their replacement for the Uruguayan.
The less said about that summer saga, the better! Perhaps then, with Daniel Sturridge suffering recurring injuries and Fabio Borini their only other senior forward, Reds bosses might have then been stung by Costa regret as the Spaniard shone at Stamford Bridge. At least, following Jurgen Klopp’s appointment in October 2015, the Reds would eventually get it right and end their drought to be crowned champions of England, having come so close in 2014.
While a Costa and Suarez strike-partnership would never grace Anfield, it did at Atletico. Kind of. The Spaniard returned to Madrid in January 2018, while the Uruguayan would sign in August 2020 as his Barca career came to an end.
"It's great. One bites and the other kicks,” Costa joked of the impending strike-partnership after opening the scoring in an opening day 6-1 victory over Granada that saw Suarez replace him in the 71st minute and score a late brace.
"We are very lucky to have Luis, I don't understand how Barca could have let him leave. He's going to help us with lots of goals as well as his warrior spirit and his hunger to win trophies. I hope he can help us win another trophy for our fans, but we need to take each game as it comes."
Yet both veterans by this point, aged 32 and 33 respectively, they’d start just one game together and instead be substituted in in place of each other for the majority as Costa struggled with injury.
Limited to seven appearances, and only two of them starts, he’d jokingly call Suarez a b*****d after his team-mate broke a six-week goalless run on the same day Costa returned from injury. The Uruguayan netted either side of half-time as Atletico recorded a 3-1 victory over Elche, with the Spaniard wrapping up the scoring with a late penalty.
"He wasn't scoring, the b******. Now I'm back and he scores twice!'" Costa joked. “Hopefully [Suarez] continues like this. I am very happy for him - he is a scorer, and the more goals the better for the team.
“We will continue scoring and competing but with respect for each other in the end. If we want to conquer something big this year, it has to be like the season we won LaLiga [2014] - we had a great team.”
Yet the victory over Elche would prove to be Costa’s penultimate appearance for Atletico, with that penalty his final goal in his final home appearance, as his contract was terminated in December 2020. In his absence, Suarez would enjoy a 21-goal season as Atleti went on to win La Liga.
Now 34 and back in the Premier League and back from injury, Costa is yet to score from 10 appearances since joining Wolves on a free transfer back in September. Considering Liverpool’s current struggles on the pitch, you wouldn’t bet against him coming back to haunt them one last time.
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