Diego for Chelsea

According to reports, Chelsea have stepped up their efforts to sign Atletico Madrid striker, Diego Costa, in the summer.

The Daily Mail reports the Blues are prepared to lash out £40m (R705 million) for Costa, and have scouted the Brazil-born Spaniard scoring the winner in Atletico’s 1-0 victory over Granada on Wednesday.

Jose Mourinho seems to be keen to wrap up the deal ahead of the World Cup, where Costa is expected to lead Spain’s title defence after making his debut for La Roja against Italy this month.

Costa has scored 32 goals in 42 games for the Spanish league leaders this season, and his 24 La Liga goals are only bettered by FIFA Ballon d’Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo with 26.

Chelsea attempted to sign Costa in January already, but the 25-year-old was not interested to move in mid-season, while Atletico are still challenging for La Liga and Champions League.

Costa reportedly had a buyout-clause of £30m (R528 million), but in the summer a fee closer to £40m is expected. With Mourinho keen to add a new main striker to his squad, Chelsea could also include Atletico Madrid’s on-loan goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, into the deal.

Mourinho has continuously stated that he wants to sign a new main striker in the summer, while the future of his current trio seems to lead away from Stamford Bridge.

Demba Ba has confirmed that he wants to leave Chelsea, Samuel Eto’o is out of contract and Fernando Torres is also eyeing a move to a club – possibly back to his boyhood club Atletico – where he will be the sole main striker.

Should Chelsea sign Diego Costa or which other striker should Mourinho bring to Stamford Bridge? Have your say in the comment section below.

Jose about the Man United vacancy

Jose Mourinho has insisted he was only interested in taking charge of Chelsea last summer after being linked with the Manchester United job, and has given his backing to David Moyes to improve next season.

Mourinho was one of the names tipped to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford, but when the legendary Scot decided to retire at the end of last season he quickly announced that Moyes was his choice to fill the hot-seat.

Moyes has come under pressure in his first year at the helm after a miserable defence of their Premier League crown, and United's final chance of silverware this term lies in the Champions League after making it through to a quarter-final against Bayern Munich.

Mourinho believes Moyes needs to be given time to adjust to a new club, and has dismissed suggestions that he ever had an interest in the United role.

"I don't know if Sir Alex thought of me for United or not," Mourinho said in The Sun.

"The point is he clearly knew I wanted to go to Chelsea. I spoke with him after we (Real Madrid) knocked United out of the Champions League last season and I told him what I wanted to do - that Chelsea is what I wanted, that was the direction I wanted to go."

"As for David, he went to a new club - a club with a new reality for him - and he is adapting.

"Next season will be better and attention, attention! He can still win the Champions League this season."

"I spoke with him after we (Real Madrid) knocked United out of the Champions League last season and I told him what I wanted to do - that Chelsea is what I wanted, that was the direction I wanted to go."

Jose Mourinho

Asked if Moyes would have been sacked by now if he had been at Chelsea, Mourinho added: "Maybe not. Maybe Chelsea now has a different vision, working to a different profile with a different strategy."

Mourinho is fighting for the title with Chelsea and determined to become champions, although he is already proud of what has been achieved at Stamford Bridge this season.

He said: "We know every match is vital until the end of the season. We don't give up, we don't give in - we go to win every game.

"This is a special season for me and my Chelsea even if we don't win anything. To push to win the Premier League and to go from the Europa League to the last eight of the Champions League is an important step."

Liverpool are among Chelsea's main rivals for the title and Mourinho is happy that Brendan Rodgers, a former coach at Stamford Bridge, is enjoying success.

He said: "We are friends. If I made any contribution for him to become a manager at a big team then I'm happy with that."

EPL FAN PARK

Premier League so popular you'd think you were in UK'

Thu 27 Mar 2014

Supersport presenter Robert Marawa says South Africans are lapping up this season's title race


This season is shaping up to be the most exciting title race for a long time in the Barclays Premier League and that anticipation is spread throughout the world, with no country more enthralled than South Africa, according to SuperSport presenter Robert Marawa.

Marawa, the face of Barclays Premier League football coverage for South African football channel SuperSport, says that the popularity of the Barclays Premier League is "immense" in South Africa and the newspaper coverage is so all-consuming that "you would think you were in the UK" with the latest twists and turns of an eventful season gripping the nation.

"Liverpool supporters have started coming out of the woodwork"
Robert Marawa
"It's the first time in a long time I have seen such long faces on Manchester United supporters, and Liverpool supporters have started coming out of the woodwork, wearing the jerseys after so many barren years," Marawa told premierleague.com. "They have a renewed sense of hope.

"You just don't know what's going to happen. Arsenal, having started so well this season, seem to be losing the plot a little bit, and you've got a guy with the reputation of winning trophies like Jose Mourinho, with the squad that wouldn't have been given much of a chance at the start of this season, leading the way in what was supposed to be a season's work in progress.

"But City have been able to afford to bring in the superstars and they have two matches in hand, so it could change at the weekend. With United not dominating people are loving what's going on. You've even got a surprise package in Everton, who might just get into a UEFA Champions League position."

So what is it about the Premier League that strikes a chord with South Africans, and which had enabled SuperSport to enjoy one of the Premier League's longest-standing overseas TV partnership deal, since the 1990s?

African players boost popularity

"There is just a certain aura that the Barclays Premier League brings, that is a complete package, something that we can't have here," he said. "We probably have something similar as a one-off when the traditional rivalry of Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates get to play each other but we don't have a continuous wave of football intensity on a weekly, sometimes twice-weekly basis. People love the game and the excitement that it brings.

"That we just don't know which way the Barclays Premier League will go makes it compelling. And who's to say Man City don't win it in the very last minute of the very last day of the season like they did in 2011/12? There's that drama, excitement, unpredictability. All of those components put together will make it a very good finish.

"The entire package really appeals to South Afircans, where you have got full stadia and superstars. Even when David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo were playing all of those different waves of players brought something into the game. From a South African perspective when Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel come through at Chelsea there was an even bigger following than before, not just from Chelsea supporters, but all those people who have an interest in following an African story. We have Steven Pienaar at Everton, and we had Benni McCarthy and Quinton Fortune before him."

Some of the African players to have graced the Barclays Premier League will be joining Marawa at Barclays Premier League Live this weekend at Zoo Lake Sports Club, Johannesburg. BPL Live is a free-to-enter fan park where five matches from the Barclays Premier League over Saturday and Sunday will be televised live on a jumbotron screen. Marcel Desailly, who was born in Ghana, Lucas Radebe, Mark Fish, both of South Africa, and Zimbabwe’s Benjani Mwaruwari, as well Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler, will attend the event. Visitors will be able to get involved in a variety of other interactive experiences on site, including football skills games, coaching sessions with the former players and the chance to have their photo taken with the Barclays Premier League trophy.

Toure star of the season

It is another African whom Marawa regards as being the outstanding individual in the Barclays Premier League this season. Manchester City's Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure scored his 17th Barclays Premier League goal of the season on Wednesday night as City stepped up their push to reclaim the title they relinquished to Manchester United last term, with an emphatic 3-0 derby triumph that moved them to within three points of leaders Chelsea. Marawa believes Toure has been the leading individual light, not just for his club, but for the tournament as a whole this season.

"He's still the same Yaya but the difference is he's scoring goals"
Robert Marawa
"I felt was a bit strange was when FIFA announced their team of the year and they didn't have the name of Yaya Toure in XI," Marawa said. "He is three times African Footballer of the Year and he's scored 21 goals in all competitions from a midfield position so far this season. Sergio Aguero has been phenomenal but has had his injury problems, and [Alvaro] Negredo's had his moments, but I would say that he has been the difference for Man City. He's lost a lot of weight, he's more mobile, he's still the same Yaya but the difference is he's scoring goals."

The host of Thursday Night with Marawa for SuperSport and Metro FM's 083 Sports@6, the most popular radio show on the African continent, has also been impressed by the displays of Everton striker Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea's Eden Hazard, but reserves a special mention for Liverpool’s partnership of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, who on Wednesday night against Sunderland became only the third pair in the history of the Barclay Premier League to scored 20+ goals each in a single season (after Newcastle United’s Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley in 1993/94 and Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard in 2009/10).

"Suarez and Sturridge scoring more goals together than 15 other teams lead the pack," Marawa said. "That Liverpool pairing is unquestionably the stand-out partnership, purely for what they continue to do. It's not a one-off thing, either, the two of them have come to understand each other very well indeed, and dovetail to devastating effect."