Antonio Conte Praises 'Polite' Alvaro Morata in Obvious Dig at Rougher Diego Costa

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has revealed Álvaro Morata is a 'polite' young man which any father would be proud for his daughter to bring home, a clear juxtaposition to how he described his feelings towards the recently departed Diego Costa.

Costa, who is set to return to Atletico Madrid in a £57m deal, has had a well-documented turbulent relationship with Conte, which seemingly stemmed from his desire to leave the club last year and time has not healed old wounds as there is clearly no love lost between the pair. 

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Ahead of the Blues' Premier League fixture away to Stoke City, Conte made it abundantly clear that he was in no mood to praise the 28-year-old, who seemingly made life difficult for him in his first season at Stamford Bridge. 

Despite being asked what qualities he admired in the Brazilian born striker, Conte stressed that any questions pertaining to Costa lacked "respect" as he said, via the Telegraph: “I repeat now: I'm not interested to talk about the past. 

“I think the past is not important. For every player, for every single player, the past stays there. If you did well in the past, okay.

With Costa now in the rear-view mirror for both Conte and Chelsea, focus has turned to the future and that firmly lies with Morata - who has already made an impression at Stamford Bridge following his £58m move from Real Madrid. 

Conte said of the 24-year-old: “I like him because he’s a complete player and also he has a lot of room to improve in every situation, tactical, physical, technical aspect, he’s very committed, his behaviour is always fantastic.

"When I speak about a lot of room for improvement it also means this aspect, to be [aggressive].

“He is a very polite player, I like this, also I like that he’s a good finisher, he ‘feels’ the goal in every moment, he’s very good and understanding which is the best position in the box to receive the ball, to understand where the ball is going."

When asked to clarify what he meant by 'polite', he said: “He’s a really good guy … It means if you have a daughter you’d be open to have this type of person with your daughter, to marry your daughter! A really good guy, a polite person.

“He is a good player, he is a complete player, technically strong, a good leader, he has a lot of room for improvement. Morata is 24 years old which means you have possibility to work with this player for 10 years,” he added.