The summer of 2013 now seems like an eternity ago. Liverpool were very much a team in ‘transition’ and Diego Costa was a little heard of striker plying his trade for Atletico Madrid in the shadow of Radamel Falcao. Oh how, times change, while the following 18 months have seen the Reds go from title challengers back into the same state of limbo, Costa has blossomed, firing Atleti to the La Liga title and Champions League Final – which they came within minutes of winning – before securing a £30m+ move to Chelsea – which looks set to end with another title and another massive haul of goals. And the third part in this, Falcao, has slipped almost off the radar at Manchester United, via an injury ravaged spell at Monaco – but we can forget about him for now.Oh how different it could have been, though. Costa was heavily linked with Liverpool in that fateful summer, and now he’s revealed just how close he came switching to Anfield:“I was close to leaving Atletico,†he said when talking about his 2013 off-season.“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.â€
Costa’s words prove how close the deal must have come to going through, and had Liverpool had Champions League football behind them instead of a seventh-placed finish, the Spain international may well have been lining up alongside Daniel Sturridge at Anfield against Blackburn yesterday rather than resting with his league-leading Chelsea team.
There are a lot of ifs and buts aligned with the whole saga, and maybe the best way to go about assessing the difference Costa could have made right now is to compare him to the man he would most like drop in for on Merseyside now: Mario Balotelli.
As the numbers show, unsurprisingly, the Brazilian-born hit-man walks all over his Italian counterpart, averaging more goals and assists, a better striker record, and even fewer yellow cards per 90 minutes. Quite a difference.
Last term the Reds did not miss the impact of such a player – Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge netted 51 league goals – but they may even have got over the line ahead of Manchester City with Costa heading up a front three with ‘SAS’ either side of him. We’ll never know.
However, the one thing we do know from the whole tale is that Liverpool seem unable to get deals over the line. In the same summer as Costa escaped their grasp, now Dortmund ace Henrikh Mkhitaryan proved unattainable, while the securing of Champions League football for this season as still not enough to lure Alexis Sanchez to the North West over the bright lights of London – and the video below shows just how costly that miss has been, too.
All of the events suggest that Liverpool are having trouble attracting the type of player needed to keep pace with Chelsea, both Manchester clubs and even Arsenal, which has contributed to the slid this term. Sturridge has impressed since his return, but the added goals and sheer presence of a player like Costa may have them in the title run-in now, instead of a desperate scrap for fourth – which they’re only involved in since Jesus appeared up at Anfield to hand Rodgers a Christmas miracle.
Simply put, Costa was the start of a worrying slide at Liverpool, and one that has signalled a changing of the times. Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson have both rejected new contract offers in recent times, while big names look away from Anfield In search of greater prospects and, probably, larger salaries. Fenway Sports Group may turn a profit, but look at the North East towards Newcastle and you’ll see the ill-feeling the shift towards making accountants smile has on supporters and football clubs.
Whomever the new Costa may be this summer, Liverpool should probably do a bit more to get him…
[ad_pod id=’ricco’ align=’center’]
//embed.scribblelive.com/Embed/v7.aspx?Id=1122916&ThemeId=22054
