Dani Alves: Jose Mourinho will make David Luiz move 'impossible'
Barcelona right-back Dani Alves has said that the presence of Jose Mourinho at Chelsea will make it ‘almost impossible’ for the Catalan club to sign David Luiz.
Barca have been have been heavily linked with the Brazilian international and had a €25 million bid rejected last week with Mundo Deportivo reporting that Barca are ready to bid €35 million in the coming days.
Mourinho has already told Barca that they are “wasting their time” in chasing Alves’s international teammate.
The right-back told the Catalan paper that even if Luiz was keen on a move to the Blaugrana outfit former Real Madrid boss Mourinho would be swift to intervene and reject any offer from Barca.
“I always want the best for my friends and I tell them to come here if they can,” Alves said. “As well as that, he is a great player. The problem is not whether he wants to come, but that in the end you have to get away from Mourinho — and that is not going to be easy. The idea of facilitating David Luiz coming to Barca would not pass through his head, and even less if it is to strengthen us. It is more than difficult for us, almost impossible.”
Should Barca give up on their pursuit of David Luiz, it is likely that manager Tata Martino and Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta will move on and look at Daniel Agger (Liverpool), Jan Vertonghen (Tottenham), Jeremy Mathieu (Valencia) and Inigo Martinez (Real Sociedad).
While Barcelona feel the need to strengthen their defensive options, centre-back Gerard Pique told the press in Kuala Lumpur, after their 3-1 win over Malysia XI, that he felt that club did not need to bolster their defensive options.
“That’s the work of the sporting director,” Pique told Barca’s official website. “The players who are here now are good enough to defend the team throughout the season.”