Chelsea strikers whose feats, whose legends, are written in Stamford Bridge folklore.
Instead, Diego Costa flew to Madrid last night having cast a shadow over his glory years at the club.
He will still have his place in Chelsea history of course, and many fans will still love him for the snarling aggression that terrified defences for the best part of two seasons, the gunslinger aggro that led Chelsea to two Premier League titles. The sheer drive and passion that Costa brought to his football, the willingness to spill blood for the cause – even if it was mostly other people’s blood – won many hearts on the terraces.
But he could have stayed, could have become a legend like Tambling, whose 202 goals stood as a record for so long. Like Osgood, still regaled as the King of the Bridge, like Dixon, who led the line for so long in the hard times, like Drogba, whose sheer presence almost alone won the Champions League in 2012.
A volatile, explosive character who can be brilliant, baffling, frequently infuriating, and occasionally plain daft, Costa will never be remembered so fondly at Stamford Bridge, even though he will go down as one of their most successful strikers, with 59 goals in 120 games, two titles and a League Cup, and plenty of memories.
Chelsea will pick up a total of £67million – £60m plus add-ons – for a player that manager Antonio Conte had long decided he did not want anywhere near his squad, and had told him so in January.
Costa has got the move he always wanted. And Atletico? Well, they have got a seriously out-of-shape striker who cannot play for them until the Copa Del Rey in January, for almost double the fee they got from Chelsea in the summer of 2014. He was a hero for them first time round and has only ever really wanted to play for them.
So the stand-off between Costa and Chelsea is over, after seven long and fractious weeks. The club finally gave up their demands that he return to training, get himself fit and make himself available for selection, when they got the price they wanted – crucially, more than they paid for his replacement Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid, just before deadline day.
It is good business for Chelsea, who also picked up a cool £60m for Oscar, another player they did not want, back in December. The club have long been experts in chiselling big fees out of clubs for players, even if they spend big too.
So finally, the saga is over, Diego has left his home town of Lagarto in northern Brazil, where he has been holding out all summer, working with a personal trainer. But where he was also photographed partying in a bar in an Atletico shirt.
Back in the summer of 2014, Costa was the only striker Jose Mourinho wanted to provide the crucial cutting edge to a team full of title-winning potential, and the manager moved early that summer to get his man alongside the provider, Cesc Fabregas. It was, for a while, a dream combination.
Costa scored on his debut at Burnley, got booked as well, and the rollercoaster was on its way. Twenty league goals later – oh, and 10 yellow cards and a three-game ban for stamping – the title was won. Costa was a hero, even though the goals significantly tailed off after the New Year.
The following season it all went sour as Mourinho fell out with his players and was sacked before Christmas. Costa – banned twice – only seemed to function once Mourinho had gone, and was suspected as being one of the “rats” Mourinho referred to that forced him out.
In came Conte, who persuaded Costa to stay last summer when a return to Atletico looked certain. The Italian seemed to have solved the Diego problem, as the goals started to flow again. Enough, indeed to clinch another title.
But in January came the explosion as Costa was denied a £90m move to Chinese Super League club Tianjin Quanjian. Conte talked him into staying and again the title was won, but then came the notorious summer text which told Costa he was not wanted – and the stand-off began.
It ended last night, and a fractious but occasionally brilliant period of Chelsea history was over. But a legend? Not quite.
