Chelsea Transfer News: Ricardo Rodriguez Deal Blocked, Latest on Gerard Pique

Chelsea's pursuit of Wolfsburg left-back Ricardo Rodriguez has been dealt a major blow as the Bundesliga side are adamant he will not be let go before his contract expires in 2016.

The 22-year-old Swiss international has been at Wolfsburg since 2012 and is reportedly a transfer target not just for Jose Mourinho's Blues but Manchester United and Bayern Munich also, per Sky Sports' Thomas Zocher.

However, the club's general manager Klaus Allofs says that Rodriguez will see out his contract and all efforts will be made to sign him up to a new deal, per SPORT1 media, via Zocher: 

"

Ricardo Rodriguez is under contract until June 2016. 

It doesn’t matter if we aren’t able to agree a new deal with him, we will not agree to an early departure. 

Anyway, I am confident that we will be able to sign a new deal with Ricardo Rodriguez.

"

If Wolfsburg do indeed refuse to sell him before his contract is up, and Rodriguez does not sign an extension with the club, he will be available as a free agent in 2016 when his current deal expires.

Chelsea may well be prepared to wait until then as their cover at left-back currently includes two top defenders in the shape of Cesar Azpilicueta and summer signing Filipe Luis, but the chances of Rodriguez making the switch to Stamford Bridge either in January or next summer now seem much depleted.

Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images

However, the Blues seem to be making progress as they look to make a move for Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique.

According to Fichajes.net (h/t Alex Harris in the Daily Star), Chelsea are set to make a January bid of £24 million for the former Manchester United man who is currently under fire at the Camp Nou after a poor performance in Saturday's 3-1 loss to Real Madrid, per Goal.com's Peter Staunton:

The Red Devils have also been recently linked with their former player, but Pique has seemingly ruled out any move away from Barcelona, per Liam Twomey on Goal.com:

"

I was really happy and left a lot of friends [in Manchester], even if I didn't play as much as I'd wanted, but I've always said I want to stay here all my career and retire at Barcelona. ...

At the moment I'm not thinking about leaving. I'm really happy if it's true that United want me but I'm a Barcelona fan, I have been since I was a kid. I want to stay here.

"

However, it is unsurprising if Mourinho is potentially looking to bring in the 27-year-old Pique, as his current central-defensive options are limited to Gary Cahill and John Terry, the latter of whom is 33 years old.

While Branislav Ivanovic is more than capable of playing centre-back also, his performances from the right of defence are so consistently good that Mourinho would no doubt be loath to move him.

Pique had a poor match against Real, but he is a top-class centre-back and could be a great help to Chelsea in their defensive unit—and certainly his is a more pressing transfer for the Blues than Rodriguez.

However, he may well not be open to a move away from his boyhood club, in which case Chelsea would need to look elsewhere for a centre-back in January as they could do with better cover in the position.