'We all want Diego Costa': Koke hopeful Atletico Madrid can seal return of AWOL Chelsea striker

Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke claims that everyone at the club wants to see rebellious Chelsea striker Diego Costa make an "exciting" return as Los Colchoneros prepare to finally end one of the summer's ugliest and most protracted transfer sagas.

The Telegraph understands that the two clubs may now be close to reaching an agreement on a deal believed to be worth £40m ($51.7m) plus no shortage of add-ons after renewed discussions.

Atletico, who are banned from registering any new players until January 2018, could reportedly be open to sanctioning a six-month loan deal amid apparent interest from the likes of Everton or else they plan to put Costa on a specialised training regime to keep him fit until he becomes available to play in the New Year.

The Brazilian-born forward has made it clear that he only wants to play for Atletico, the club for whom he scored 64 times in 134 appearances before joining Chelsea in a £32m deal three years ago. His goals helped Diego Simeone's side to win their first La Liga title for almost two decades in 2014 and also aided the club on their march to the Champions League final.

It seems Costa's desire to return to the Spanish capital is shared by his former teammates, according to highly-rated midfield schemer Koke.

"We all want Diego Costa to come, but the situation is complicated," he told radio station Cadena Ser. "If Diego comes, he will help us and he already knows a lot of us at the club so for us it would be very exciting."

Costa has spent the summer in his native Lagarto after receiving a text message from Antonio Conte in which it was made clear that he did not feature in Chelsea's plans for the future. He was initially given extra time off to sort his future before being omitted from a pre-season tour of the Far East, though has since defied requests to return to Cobham and racked up considerable fines as a result.

The fiery Spain international claimed that he had rejected other approaches in order to secure a move to Atletico, later saying that Chelsea had treated him "like a criminal" and were effectively pricing him out of his preferred move. Costa, who has two years remaining on his contract at Stamford Bridge and scored 20 goals last term as Conte won the Premier League title in his first campaign at the helm, also stated that he was open to staying in Brazil for a whole year without playing or being paid if necessary.

Conte laughed off those claims and maintains that the decision over Costa's situation was made and communicated to both the player and his camp back in January, when he was subject to lucrative interest from China and was also involved in a training ground row with Chelsea fitness coach Julio Tous.

Costa is unlikely to want to leave Atletico on loan providing a deal can be completed before the transfer deadline, although the prospect of six months on the sidelines would hardly mesh well with his hopes of featuring at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.