As reported by L’Équipe, Saint-Étienne were surprised to see the club linked with a move for Diego Costa last month but could the club have actually afforded the former Chelsea striker?
Saint-Étienne told L’Équipe that the club had made no offer to Costa and that he was instead offered to them by an intermediary, explaining “the player is not interested in the project and his salary expectations are unrealistic.”
With Costa, now 33 and recently leaving Atlético Mineiro in Brazil, was keen on one more spell in Europe and his agents had targeted clubs like ASSE and Serie A strugglers Salernitana while quoting a €100,000 gross monthly salary plus a €200,000 signing bonus for the free agent.
Given those relatively reasonable salary demands, was his transfer truly “unrealistic”?