Why star strikers Costa, Zlatan must move on

During the last fortnight, two of the world’s premier managers, Chelsea’s Antonio Conte and Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho, have thrown out their leading marksmen. United announced they are not offering Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose 28 goals underpinned their Europa League and League Cup double on the same day Diego Costa revealed Conte had told him he’s not in his plans for next season.

What is going on here? Why are such decorated managers shoving out such accomplished goal poachers? Don’t they know how hard it is to replace a 20-goals-a-season striker? To best appreciate why Conte and Mourinho literally bit the bullet, one has to reflect on what transpired last season, but also examine the career of Sir Alex Ferguson - the greatest club manager of all time.

Conte first. Throughout last season Diego Costa was as brilliant on the pitch as he was difficult to manage off it. His on and off flirtation with Chinese club Tianjin Quanjian not only badly affected his form, it almost derailed Chelsea’s title pursuit. You must remember he had a bust up with the Premier League champions’ medical team over a mystical back injury leading Conte to drop him from the starting line up in two games.

In Ibrahimovic’s case, you have to say his career threatening knee ligament damage to some extent influenced the Red Devils’ hierarchy. You generally don’t offer a one year contract to 36 year old on clutches. Do you?

You could. But not Mourinho or Conte. These are tacticians who benefitted from being students of Sir Alex Ferguson. The great Scot was the ultimate football totalitarian or despot who laid down the law. And that included deciding which players were part of his squad. By getting rid of Costa, Conte the football totalitarian was both sending a message to the rest of his squad that despite his animated demeanour, touchline antics and love towards his players, he is boss at Stamford Bridge.
More crucially, Conte is applying the most important of Ferguson’s attributes - managing a generational transition.

United stayed atop the perch by moving on leading players at times ordinary mortals would never have dreamt of it. Andrei Kanchelkis was the Premier League’s top winger when Fergie hawked him off to make way for David Beckham. The same fate befell Beckham when United recruited Cristiano Ronaldo. When 44-goal a season Ruud van Nistelrooy had a training ground busy up with Ronaldo, it was him that moved on.

Other players to fall by the way side courtesy of Fergie’s totalitarian streak include giant Dutch defender Jaap Stam, who was the league’s top centre back when Fergie decided his time was up.

Conte has therefore also told Costa is not in his plans because he needs to continue the Chelsea transition and in Romelu Lukaku he sees the big bustling centre forward who will lead the line without throwing tantrums. As one Chelsea fan correctly noted holding onto Costa is like begging a philandering wife to stay in your home.

In United’s case, Mourinho needs to recruit Real Madrid star Alvaro Morata or Torino hotshot Andrea Belotti but he can’t bring them aboard when Ibrahimovic’s shadow is hovering above them, and yet he must continue to develop emerging stars Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.

In a nutshell, Costa was shoved out because Conte needed to re-assert his authority at Chelsea while simultaneously shaping the squad to meet next season’s daunting demands.