Antonio Conte has told Diego Costa to keep his focus purely on football as the Chelsea striker continues to enjoy a fine start to the campaign.
But Conte has spoken to the player about blocking out all of the noise that surrounds him and to remain focused on helping Chelsea deliver on the pitch.
“Diego must be focused on the game,” Conte said.
“I don’t want him to focus on other players, other managers or the press or people that talk badly about him. He must just stay very focused on the game.
“For me, the game – performance – is the most important thing. The others are only ‘blah, blah, blah’. It’s important to pay attention during the game because he is an important player and he can score a lot of goals.
“So I want him to put himself in the game, not to think of other situations. It is not good for me, it’s not good for him and it’s not good for Chelsea or the fans.”
“Also, I like always to tell the truth. Not a bad lie, always the truth. Bad or good but I prefer to tell the truth because when the football is finished and I face the player in other situations it is important to be able to look them in the eye.”
PA Sport
I’d imagine that a good few of you have read Jon Ronson’s ‘The Psychopath Test’.
Society tends to only use the ‘P’ word when referring to the criminally insane.
‘Oh that gut was a psycho’.
Josef Mengele, Vlad The Impaler, Ronnie Kray, Jeffery Dahmer… the list is seemingly endless.
If you read Ronson’s excellent book, you’ll see that you can effortlessly add names to the category that have been perhaps less obvious.
The Clintons, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jeffery Archer, Donald Trump…
Would Diego Costa pass ‘The Psychopath Test’?
Oh I say he would.
