Matt Maher: Sit back and enjoy the ride on the Wolves roller-Costa!
While there’s an argument to be had whether Diego Costa is the most high-profile signing in Wolves’ history, few have had the potential to be quite so entertaining.
The 33-year-old’s arrival has been described in some quarters as a gamble on Wolves’ part. Yet that would suggest they had something to lose in the first place.
With Sasa Kalajzdic cruelly lost to long-term injury just 45 minutes into his Molineux career and Raul Jimenez struggling with fitness and form, Wolves needed a striker and in the free agent market in which they found themselves shopping, Costa looks a better bet than most.
Granted, he has not kicked a ball in anger for nine months and clearly is an older, different player to the one who terrorised Premier League defences for three seasons with Chelsea between 2014 and 2017. Yet if Wolves can elicit just a little of the old magic, their move for Costa could prove a very shrewd one.
One thing which can be said with some degree of confidence is with Costa around things will not be dull. That has never been his style.
Recent days have seen a retelling of some of the former Brazil and Spain internationals most memorable moments from his first stint in English football, both good, bad and ugly.
Costa’s approach could perhaps be summed up in the first words of English he uttered to his Chelsea team-mates following his arrival from Atletico Madrid for £32million. “I go to war, you come with me,” he said.
There were occasions when he delivered on the promise a little too literally. Banned three matches for stamping on Liverpool’s Emre Can in January 2015, Costa also faced (false) accusations of trying to bite Gareth Barry after being sent off for clashing with the midfielder during a match with Everton.
Yet any concerns over his discipline could forgiven because of his goals, 59 of them scored in 120 appearances for a club who have frequently seen big money striker signings struggle. Chelsea won the Premier League in his first and third seasons at Stamford Bridge.
If Costa’s words are to be believed, the internal fires are still burning.
“If my mom is on the field, I’ll take her out, too,” he said after signing for Atletico Mineiro, his most recent club.
Whether the body can still keep up with the brain is another question. In purely statistical terms, Costa’s time back home in Brazil, the country of his birth, proved rather underwhelming. He scored just five times in 19 appearances before his contract was terminated by mutual consent in January. Since then he has been a free agent and though he may have kept himself in good shape, nine months is a long time for a player who turns 34 next month to be inactive. Getting back up to speed again will not be straightforward.
One of the most impressive things about Costa during his time at Chelsea, apart from the goals, was his durability. In three years, he rarely missed a game through injury. Yet ever since returning to Atletico Madrid, he has been afflicted by a number of niggles and only once played in more than 16 league matches in the five seasons since leaving Stamford Bridge.
Off the pitch, meanwhile, there is the small matter of a betting scandal – in which he was last year accused of being involved – still being investigated by Brazilian police. Costa denies any wrongdoing.
Perhaps a larger question is how he might fit into a Wolves dressing room not exactly brimming with big characters, where numerous players are often described as ‘low maintenance’? Costa, who threatened to go on strike before Chelsea sold him back to Atletico for £57m, could hardly be described as that.
Any risk is tempered by the circumstances. This is a one-year deal, with a fairly strong incentive for the player to prove he can still cut it in the Premier League.
Having previously signed the like of Paul Ince, Denis Irwin and appointed two former England managers in Graham Taylor and Glenn Hoddle, Wolves have rarely been a club scared of recruiting big names.
Yet the profile of the club itself, now established in the world’s most popular league, has arguably never been greater and Costa’s arrival will make headlines far and wide.
For Bruno Lage, it is a big deal in every sense.
It would be wrong to say all of Wolves’ issues in attack can be traced to the lack of an effective frontman, yet it is a position where they are badly lacking and the urgency with which the club has acted comes as no surprise, albeit Costa will likely need a few weeks before he is ready to start matches.
This is not a move anyone could have envisioned a week ago, yet it now feels like one Lage and Wolves really need to work. It should prove quite the show regardless.
