I think Costa had to go after the China stunt, not sure Conte or the club had much choice on that. I loved Costa but lets not forget we never got a full good season out of him and was prone to big dips in form for the second half of the season (not unlike Morata).

I do have a fair amount of sympathy with Conte regarding how long the club took to get players in last summer and in Jan, there is no doubt that hindered pre-season and cost us points(having no striker for games in Jan). But from the outside it looked like the club chased some of Contes first choice targets all summer (Koulibaly, Sandro) but couldn't get people to sell.

Some of the other players he was rumoured to want(Lukaku, Sanchez, Van Dik) I think, with regards to the sums of money involved, the club were right to not sign.

The reality is with FFP we can't just go out and sign anyone we want for any amount. Even City can't do that anymore.

As to an earlier point, yes the club should have been aware of what Conte was like but he also must have known we were no longer a club that would go out and spend crazy amounts so for me clear fault on both sides.

At the end of the day he under achieved with what he had last year and if he had spent less time complaining I'm sure we would have finished top 4 again and I think most people would have accepted that given how good City were.