Barca Chief Flies To London To Open Talks Over £40m David Luiz Move

With the summer transfer window now open, there is plenty of gossip doing the rounds in the newspapers so we’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest transfer rumours. Today, Barcelona have stepped up their attempts to sign David Luiz.

Barcelona director Raul Sanllehi has arrived in London tasked with trying to negotiate a deal to sign Chelsea’s £40m-rated defender David Luiz, according to the Daily Mail.

Luiz’s future at Stamford Bridge has surprisingly come under scrutiny following the arrival of Jose Mourinho this summer and reports have recently linked him with a move to German giants Bayern Munich – although boss Pep Guardiola was quick to dismiss these reports insisting he wasn’t in the market for another defender.

One club who are desperate to add to their defensive option are Barcelona and the Mail claim the Spanish giants have sent director of football, Raul Sanllehi, to London to step up their interest in Chelsea’s 26-year-old Brazilian international.

The report suggests Sanllehi is planning to meet up with Luiz’s agent, Giuliano Bertolucci, with the La Liga champions understood to be confident the defender is keen to join them this summer and they will then press ahead with their move once the Blues are back from their trip to the USA at the weekend.

Luiz has barely featured for Chelsea so far this pre-season, playing just 30 minutes against Inter Milan last week, and he’s due to miss out again against Real Madrid in Miami on Thursday due to an apparent hamstring injury.

While the other lads trained, @DavidLuiz_4 completed his own workout. He won't play against Real tomorrow. #CFCUSA pic.twitter.com/qJePUYmkHY

— Chelsea FC (@chelseafc) August 6, 2013

Luiz has become a real fan favourite at Stamford Bridge since arriving from Benfica in 2011 and Jose Mourinho insisted he was part of his plans for the forthcoming season when he spoke to the press on Wednesday. However, the Mail suggest his comments were merely to talk-up the Brazilians valuation with the west Londoners set to demand  £40m from Barca for the player.

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