Friday, 9th August, 2013
Chelsea are once again having to issue a "no chance" statement to Barcelona's pursuit of centre-back David Luiz, just days after seeing a bid come their way.
Barcelona were understood to have bid between €20m and €25m for the Brazilian, who has been very much admired by the Catalan club's leadership.
In addition, Barcelona director of football Raul Sanllehi had reportedly met up with Luiz's agent in London earlier this week to work out an arrangement.
The fact that Luiz was left out of Chelsea's International Champions Cup final game against Real Madrid, alongside another transfer target Juan Mata, due to injury has not helped matters.
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But manager Jose Mourinho has had to repeat himself from his words back in July, when stating that Barcelona would not be getting their hands on Luiz under any circumstances.
Mourinho told Chelsea's official site: "If they need a central defender my advice is that they have to go to the second name they have in their list because they are wasting their time. No chance.
"They are important players. The team with David Luiz and Mata is a better team. But we don't risk players in pre-season.
"Mata had a little thing, no risk, David has something from the past, an injury he had before the Champions League final.
"We are not here to risk [them]. But the team with them is a better team. [Luiz] had a good session in Washington with the physio so hopefully, there is no problem."
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