Tuesday 19 July 2016 10:37, UK
Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo has played down reports he has held talks with Chelsea striker Diego Costa over a return to the club.
Costa joined Chelsea from Atletico in 2014 for £32m but he failed to live up to his impressive first campaign in the Premier League as the 2014-15 champions struggled for consistent form in their bid to retain the title last season.
He scored 16 goals in 41 appearances in all competitions but his inconsistent performances saw him left out of Spain's Euro 2016 squad.
Chelsea are insistent Costa is staying with the club, who go into the new season with a new head coach in Antonio Conte.
But Cerezo was reported to have spoken with the 27-year-old about a return to Atletico, for whom Costa scored 27 goals in his final season as they won their first La Liga title since 1996.
"We like him a lot, I'll admit," Cerezo was quoted as saying. "We are talking to the player and working on him returning to Madrid. It's close, but I can't say anymore."
But he has since told Spanish newspaper AS: "I do not speak of players at other clubs."
Atletico have been linked with a number of strikers in the summer transfer window, but Cerezo gave a list of players who will not be signing.
He added: "[Carlos] Bacca is a great player, but we are not going to sign him. The same goes for [Gonzalo] Higuain. We are not going to sign any striker from Serie A.
"[Mauro Icardi's] name is not on our agenda. We aren't looking at him."
