Antonio Conte has hit back at Diego Costa after his former player’s damning assessment of him during their time together at Chelsea.
The pair enjoyed success in west London with Costa spearheading Conte’s side to the 2016-17 Premier League title.
However, that relationship soon deteriorated after a very public falling out that led to Costa going AWOL before re-joining Atletico Madrid in January 2018.
In the intervening eight years, Costa has thrown many digs at Conte and did so again last week in his latest attack – accusing the Italian of always being angry, lacking trust, while branding him as a ‘bitter man’ and questioning his sex life.
Conte, who is now in charge of Napoli, had remained silent on the latest barrage from Costa but broke that on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking ahead of their Champions League encounter with Chelsea on Wednesday night, he said of Costa: ‘Honestly I’m not a person to lose energy reading what the people say in the paper.
‘I know very well that around football, there are intelligent people, clever people and stupid people, so I don’t lose my time to spend my time to read intelligent people or stupid people.
‘Diego Costa played with me one season, so I can talk about the football. I think we won together the league and he wanted to go away three times the same season. I know this.
‘After Chelsea, I don’t know what happened to him.’
His retort comes after Costa’s scathing accusations against Conte on John Obi Mikel’s The Obi One Podcast.
‘I sent the message to Marina [Granovskaia, former Chelsea director] and she immediately told me what he did could not be done, that he was not the owner of the team.
‘In the end, I was in Brazil, I was with my family and I told Marina that for everything I’ve done for the club, I don’t deserve to be treated like this.
‘He’s a person who doesn’t trust others, he thinks he knows everything.
‘You don’t enjoy training with him. He’s always angry, always with a long face.
‘He probably doesn’t have sex at home because he is a very bitter guy.
‘It is a shame because I was very happy in Chelsea, but I did not want to cause a problem to the club. The players want me to come back but nobody liked him, that’s why he didn’t last long.
‘The past is the past, it is a shame. The titles he won at Chelsea, he won it with me for his bad luck. I wish him all the best with his life.’
Conte soon followed Costa out of the door at Chelsea after he was sacked by the Blues at the end of that 2017-18 season for missing out on Champions League qualification by finishing fifth, although he did lead the club to FA Cup success.
Costa would go on to play for Atletico Madrid from 2017 to 2020, before returning to Brazil with Atletico Mineiro.
The forward would later have spells with Wolves, Botofogo and Gremio towards the end of his career.
