Chelsea have rejected a £30 million ($47.6 million) bid from English Premier League champions Manchester City, according to The Sun.
Roberto Mancini is desperate to land a central defender, with just Joleon Lescott and Vincent Kompany the established stars, while Kolo Toure's future remains uncertain. Stefan Savic has failed to make a mark, when given a chance, with Micah Richards out of the side with a long-term injury.
After failing in a bid to bring in Liverpool defender Daniel Agger, City have turned their attentions towards Chelsea's Brazilian stopper Luiz.
The Sun claims Luiz, who signed from Benfica in January 2011, was left out of the squad for the match against Reading, which the European champions won 4-2, after receiving the bid. However, the 25-year-old wrote on his Twitter account, he was out with a knee injury, with Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo unhappy with the Tweet, which was made without authorization from the club, and some time prior to the team announcement.
On the tweet, Di Matteo said: "This social media thing is all around us now. We'll deal with it internally.
However, the Italian manager, who sees Luiz as a big part of his plans going forward, confirmed the injury and said he expects the defender to be okay for Saturday's match. "We expect David Luiz to be available for Saturday, it's a minor knee issue."
A move for Luiz looks highly unlikely, with Chelsea determined not to sell a player to their direct rivals. While the £30 million looks tempting, it appears it would take a lot more money to force a re-think.
Meanwhile, it looked like Cesar Azpilicueta had moved ever closer to a move to Stamford Bridge, after the right-back was left out Marseille's squad for Thursday's Europa League playoff clash against FC Sheriff Tiraspol, but the French club have denied the signing has been agreed.
Azpilicueta has been tracked by Chelsea for quite a while now, and the Blues were expected to finally complete the deal for the Spanish international defender for a fee believed to be around €8 million (£6.3 million, $10 million).
Azpilicueta seemed to say goodbye to Marseille fans after playing for the club at the weekend in Ligue 1, saying: "Everyone thinks it's been a tough time for me with my thoughts spilt between Marseille and Chelsea," the 22-year-old said after Marseille's match against Sochaux. "I thank the club's fans for their standing ovation. They have always been good to me, even when things haven't gone well."
Marseille president Vincent Labrune and his sporting director Jose Anigo have been in London this week, which further fuelled suggestions that a deal was forthcoming.
However, Labrune said a transfer has not been agreed yet. "I do not know who started this story, but they are totally wrong," the Frenchman told La Marseillaise. "It surely comes from agents that have an interest in the deal.
"Maybe they imagine that by running around making a noise about €8million it will make a difference, but it will not."
"For the moment nothing is happening."
