Tianjin Quanjian confirm talks over Chelsea's Diego Costa but Chinese Super League club can't wait until summer

Talks: Diego Costa's agent met with the owner of the Chinese Super League club
AFP/Getty Images
Tom Dutton18 January 2017

Tianjin Quanjian owner Shu Yuhui has confirmed he held talks with Diego Costa's agent over a move for the Chelsea forward.

Standard Sport understands the Chinese Super League club are prepared to part with more than £80m for Costa and pay the Spain international in excess of £570,000-a-week to make the switch.

And Shu confirmed Costa's representative Jorge Mendes flew out to China to disucss a potential deal for the striker.

Chelsea are determined to keep Costa until the summer at least, but the Tianjin Quanjian owner has suggested Chelsea's reluctance to sell this month has ended their pursuit.

"I made an appointment with Mendes and he came to my hometown to visit me. At that time, we were interested in signing Costa," he told Tianjin Sports Channel.

"PSG told us [Edinson] Cavani would only be allowed to leave in June, even though the player himself was willing to join us.

"The same can be said for Costa because Chelsea would only let him leave in June. However, the new season of CSL will almost reach the halfway stage in June, we can't wait so long."

Diego Costa Chelsea in training

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It comes as Shu revealed he was forced to suspend plans to sign several big names from Europe after changes to CSL rules.

After an update to the laws, teams are only allowed to name three imports in their starting line-ups.

"Our club had a massive investment plan for the new season but it was tightened up by the new rules," Shu said.

"We need an out-and-out striker so we made a bid for Benzema. We also made an attempt for Falcao.

"As a matter of fact, the club had even prepared the contracts for Falcao and [Benfica striker] Raul Jimenez. We had already reached agreement with them on wages and bonus. The pair were expected to sign the contracts, but the new rules forced us to give up on them."

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