Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone admits he was eager to sign Chelsea striker Diego Costa last summer.

Simeone has revealed Costa's contract at Stamford Bridge was a sticking point.

"I was crystal clear with Diego about what we were trying to do and how long we'd wait for an answer and that's why we've still got a great relationship today," he told Marca.

"The problem we came up against was that there tend not to be buyout clauses in England and so Chelsea could say to us: 'we want £180m' or '...we don't want to sell...'

"From my point of view both I and the club did everything we possibly could to get him back to Atletico but what happened was we set a date after which we had to take action and we signed Kevin Gameiro instead."