Open letter to Diego Costa from a Chelsea fan

Diego Costa: Chelsea’s new man up front

Dear Diego Costa,

Finally, it has happened. You are now a Chelsea player. Welcome to Stamford Bridge!

I understand that the chances of you reading this are as little as Costa Rica’s chances of winning the World Cup (with all due respect to their remarkable run), but, it’s not impossible is it? I write to you from the perspective of a certain section of fans.

What do we expect from you? What would you be expecting from us in return? I hope to answer these questions soon.

Before coming to that, let me take you a little back in time. Towards the end of May 2006, we signed a striker (let’s call him X) from AC Milan for £30 million. We did this, despite having a powerhouse Ivorian (say, Y) already garnering some reputation. X scored on debut – just the start a striker needs at a new club. However, his first season wasn’t too good a return – 14 goals in all competitions.

Did it justify the fee? No. He was already being labelled a flop by opposition fans. The next season saw a decline in both number of appearances and goals scored due to recurring injuries and hence a loss of form. Over the course of those two years, we realized that X at Chelsea just didn’t work. He was loaned back to Milan, and then sold to his boyhood club the following year.

Andriy Shevchenko turned from a demi-god to a mere mortal in his two years at Stamford Bridge.

Andriy Shevchenko arrived from a place where he was well settled, for a big fee, with the pressure to deliver instantly, and failed horribly. Two years was all it took to reduce him from ‘one of the world’s best strikers’ to ‘just another ageing striker past his best’.

Z’s story is even more interesting. Z was blessed with pace, and even became the captain of his first club at just 20 years of age. But his fitness was always a doubt. In his first season at Liverpool, he scored 33 goals in all competitions. The next two seasons saw his appearances restricted due to injuries, but he still managed 40 in all competitions. Besides, Z always had a habit of scoring against us – whether he was 100% fit, or even half-fit.

All that changed when he signed for us in January, 2011, for a staggering £50 million. A horror debut (against Liverpool, ironically) was a prelude to what was to come. He would score only one goal for the remainder of the season. We were shocked. How could one of the best strikers of the world get into such a bad spell? It was as if he was cursed!

On top of the assumed curse, it was the price tag that was clearly affecting him. Every touch he took was a contemplative one. The fear of missing led to a reluctance to shoot, and this made him pass up simple chances (I am forced to remind myself of Old Trafford where he missed an open goal; just can’t get that moment out of my head). And before I forget, the Ivorian I mentioned was still top dog, and started most of the games.

Fernando Torres was crumbling – both internally, and as a brand. We are in 2014 now, and all that we have seen are some flashes here and there – the Nou Camp goal, the hat-trick vs QPR, the performance against Manchester City at home last season, to name a few. A couple of years ago, we had the optimism to believe that “Fernando Torres is back”, whenever he played well. Gradually, a good match from Fernando Torres was being greeted by a general feeling that he’ll get back to sleep for the next couple of games.

The optimism with Fernando Torres, the hope that someday he’ll set Chelsea on fire, is gone. Rafa Benitez said that Torres thrives when he is assured a start every game and is made to feel important. Having been provided the assurance, and competition (read Drogba and Sturridge) cleared, he has even proved his favourite manager wrong. And when there was competition, there was hardly a performance to warrant regular selection.

Fernando Torres has failed to replicate his form at Liverpool

Like Shevchenko, Torres has been labelled a failure (45 goals in 172 appearances for Chelsea). Are there more appearances left in him now that you’ve arrived? Only time will tell.

I hope you’ve understood what you’re stepping into. You are another big name, big money striker arriving at Chelsea. Please do not go the way of those two.

We expect you to fire straight away. You are the type of player our manager likes- strong in the air, can hold the ball up, an instinctive and accurate finisher. The Premier League is too quick, and if you start slowly, the media will be all over you. Before you realize, they’ll make you look like a waste of money (even more eagerly, since it’s Chelsea and you’ve just had a poor World Cup) and heap pressure on you.

We hope you handle it. There is no doubt now that you are the number one striker, with the futures of Torres and Lukaku still unclear. Our three strikers last season, Torres, Eto’o and Ba, managed 19 league goals combined, while Daniel Sturridge, a player we sold to Liverpool to reduce competition for Torres, scored 21. This is the gulf we have at Chelsea in the striker’s position.

You, Diego Costa, must make the impact Daniel Sturridge did at Liverpool. He hasn’t stopped scoring for them since the day he signed. We want you to continue in the same vein as you were in at Atletico.

But, are you the player we need? There are some sceptics out there with a very valid argument. You are 25 now, at the peak of your career. But, apart from last season, what is it about you that have stood out? Not much in terms of goals. The feat of 36 goals in all competitions last season is phenomenal, but is it flash-in-the-pan stuff? Is it possible that you were very lucky and whatever you tried came off?

The stats before this season say, in reverse chronological order, that you have scored 20, 10, 8, 9 goals in all competitions for Atletico, Rayo Vallecano and Real Valladolid, and also reveal a history of injury and disciplinary problems. In addition, the World Cup debacle backs their argument that you’re only a one-season wonder. Are you the next Hulk? (What, apart from one good season at Porto, has stood out in his club career?)

Ok, the World Cup wasn’t your fault. Spain’s system made a mockery of your real strengths (Ah, Spain! Why even play a striker?). You could hardly get a touch of the ball. Yet, you managed to win one dubious penalty – one assist for the stats book.

Diego Costa and Spain were knocked out in the group stages of this year’s World Cup

Not to be too rude, but at this time last year, who was Diego Costa? “Just another average Brazilian striker”.

Please prove me wrong. A goal every 2 appearances will be considered good enough.

Irrespective of what you may have heard, we support our players like no other club. We eventually accepted even Rafa Benitez, because the results were positive. We have stuck by Fernando Torres to the limit of human patience allows (had he been a Chelsea manager, he wouldn’t have lasted even a month). We treated Didier Drogba like he was still our player when he returned as an opponent, and will do the same for Juan Mata. All you have to do is, score.

Score like you’ve been scoring for Atletico for the past couple of years. Score as if every game is a cup final. Listen to Mourinho, feel the mood of the Stamford Bridge crowd on those Champions League nights, play for the logo on your chest and we will treat you as a royalty.

There are also some sections of fans who want the younger players to be given a chance. Romelu Lukaku has had two fantastic seasons on loan (32 goals in two seasons), while Patrick Bamford has impressed in the Championship. It is high time for Lukaku to seriously challenge for the main forward’s spot. He will consider you as an unwanted addition, another roadblock on the road to his childhood dream of starring for Chelsea. He was so frustrated with our signing of Eto’o last season that he requested a loan. With only a couple years left on his contract, would your arrival bring out a transfer request? Yikes!

Lastly, let me remind you about one last thing. Every transfer window, Chelsea gets linked to all the footballers in the world, the good ones usually. I mean, have you been reading the news for the last couple of years? We have signed Filipe Luis, Radamel Falcao, Wayne Rooney and Edinson Cavani twice already.

We want a regular goal scoring striker – be it you, or Lukaku. We, the fans, don’t care about reputation, the price tag, or the age. As long as he does the job his manager wants him to do, there is no reason to complain.

To conclude, let me list out to you, the dangers of being a big money Chelsea striker –

1. The expectation and constant attention.
2. Comparisons to past strikers who didn’t do too well.
3. Speculation linking you to other clubs.
4. Speculation that the club wants to sign a replacement for you.

And lastly, if you ever hear the name Didier Drogba, phrases like “he’s as good as Drogba”, or “he’s Drogba’s replacement here”, forget the name and run. Haven’t you heard Dumbledore? Fear of the name only increases the fear of the thing itself.

Much bigger names (read as Shevchenko and Torres) than Diego Costa have crumbled under that comparison. Sorry, you don’t stand a chance.

We hope you, the Brazil born Spaniard, can do what “the Spaniard” was initially bought to do. We hope to see the Diego Costa of the year gone by for the foreseeable future at Chelsea. It’s only a matter of a ball and a net.

Best of luck Diego Costa. See you soon.

From,

A Chelsea fan