Rubbishing the Rumors of Chelsea's David Luiz Moving to Barcelona

Chelsea fans need not worry—David Luiz isn't going anywhere. Not this summer at least.

The Brazilian's name has constantly cropped up on the transfer rumor mill since the end of 2012-13, with a potential move to La Liga champions Barcelona being mooted by many journalists. And on Thursday (July 10), the Daily Star's Gary Jones ensured the story reared its head once more with a report suggesting Barca are still pursuing the Chelsea ace.

With Luiz on international duty at the Confederations Cup, the theme has been that, as Carles Puyol edges closer to retirement and Barca being found out defensively last term, the Catalan giants are eager to bring in a proven defender to shore up their rearguard.

Thiago Silva is seen as Tito Villanova's main target (as per Fox Soccer). But if Barca lose out on capturing Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian, they're ready to pounce on Luiz, a player who The Sunday Times (access via a paywall) suggest is not in Jose Mourinho's plans at Stamford Bridge.

The reasoning has been simple—Luiz's flamboyance is apparently a major concern for his Portuguese manager and Mourinho has made him an ultimatum: "It's my way or the highway", as The Express put it.

Luiz hasn't helped the situation when asked about his future, being quoted in The Sun in mid-June as saying: "I really don’t want to talk about my future. At the moment I am only thinking about the national team.”

When asked about the prospect of working with Mourinho, Luiz replied: “I don’t want to answer that question.”

On the surface a skeptic can sense tension—a transfer exclusive, even—but equally, Luiz's passive approach could very well read as little more than a player attempting to deflect attention from something he has no control over.

We simply don't know, but then what makes the better headline: "David Luiz wants to quit Chelsea", or "Luiz denies Barca links"?

It's a simple answer and with column inches needing to be filled, the rumor very much serves a purpose.

Even so, are Chelsea contemplating selling one of their best players? It's highly unlikely.

For all the criticism Mourinho may receive for how his teams play with negative tactics, the Portuguese knows talent when he sees it. He will be aware of the maturity Luiz demonstrated at the back end of last season and he will be familiar with what he offers this Chelsea team.

By keeping much of the back room staff from the past two seasons at Chelsea, Mourinho and the club have shown a willingness to maintain a level of continuity. They've retained the services of the highly-respected Steve Holland, among others, and key players such as Luiz will be no different.

There's been radio silence almost everywhere Chelsea's transfer dealings with defenders have been concerned. We've heard about star strikers Edinson Cavani (via Daily Mail), Falcao (via The Mirror) and Wayne Rooney (via The Guardian) being on their target list, but a central defender?

It's been a case of all quiet on the Western Front, and that very silence speaks much louder than the Luiz rumors.

As Chelsea headed out to the Far East for their preseason tour this week, Mourinho highlighted how inexperienced his squad is.

"We are a very young squad," he commented in the Daily Mail. "We have an average age of 26.3 and that includes Schwarzer who is 40 years old and JT, Cech and Lampard in the 30s, so if we don't involve these players, we drop to almost an Under-21 team."

At 26, removing Luiz from that equation brings the squad's average age and experience down further, thus unnecessarily weakening Mourinho's prospects of success.

The Portuguese is as shrewd as they come, and selling Luiz—to a European rival at that—would be anything but.