Atletico Madrid President denies quotes about Diego Costa

There is someone, somewhere fabricating quotes coming from Enrique Cerezo’s mouth, according to the Atletico Madrid President.

After the internet, football internet anyway, erupted with reports that Cerezo said a deal bringing Diego Costa back to Atletico Madrid was close, he moved quickly to dispel these made up quotes.

He told AS, “I do not speak of players at other clubs.”

Gazzamercato originally reported that Cerezo said a “deal is close” when referring to Costa but ESPN reported soon after that they had removed it from their website, leaving in only the part about Atletico not signing a player from Serie A and instead saying about Costa that, “We like him. We're talking, but we're working on various players.”

Was it an effort to make sure a deal was not scuppered? Or are talks in the earliest stages? Or is there no talks to talk about?

Not sure, but be careful out there, guys! It’s silly season.