Ignore the transfer talk, Mata and Luiz are going nowhere

There’s been a lot of rumours over the past few weeks about the futures of Juan Mata and David Luiz. Apparently, Jose Mourinho (the best manager in the world) has completely lost his marbles and wants to get rid of our best player, along with one of our strongest performers from last season. Now, as I say, either Mourinho needs to check himself into some sort of mental home, or the press are talking absolute cobblers as usual. I’m going with the latter.

Let’s start with Juan Mata. A couple of Spanish sources, Marca in particular, have claimed that Barcelona are going to swoop in and take our little magician to Catalonia for the mere sum of £30m. I can’t even begin to describe how much is wrong with this.

Unsurprisingly, these reports provide no quotes from any sort of source. Be it Barcelona, Chelsea or anyone from Mata’s camp. Nothing whatsoever. Secondly, the fee that is being branded around is quite hilarious. Especially when you consider that the same source is claiming Gareth Bale to be worth around £85m. I’m sure anyone with half a brain cell would agree that Bale is not worth nearly three times as much as Mata.

And the other key factors that need to be considered: Are Chelsea a bit strapped for cash, therefore needing to offload their best player in exchange for a bit of money? I don’t think so. Is selling Juan Mata for £30m, and finding a cheaper replacement going to improve our team? Very unlikely. Is he coming to the end of his contract and refusing to sign a new deal? Two years into a five year contract, not quite. Has he indicated in any way that he is unhappy at Chelsea or with life in London? Quite the opposite in fact.

Basically, if Juan Mata leaves Chelsea this summer, I’ll give my season ticket to the bloke that preaches his thoughts on Christianity down the Fulham Road on match days. It’s just not going to happen. I’d have money on Mata being given a nice new five year contract by the end of the summer, with the hefty pay rise that he deserves. Put that one to bed, folks.

One issue that doesn’t seem to be going away is the future of David Luiz. This one seems to have a little more to it than the Mata stories, but I’m still not overly concerned. Without wanting to repeat myself, Luiz is tied down to a long contract, Chelsea do not need to sell prized assets to bring in a bit of money and the supposed buying clubs are going to have to dig very deep into their pockets if they want the player.

I’ve seen a few quotes from Luiz himself about it, and he’s not doing himself any favours. He’s talked about the fantastic project at PSG and the supposed family spirit at Barcelona, when he should be just ignoring the speculation. I’d be sad to see Luiz leave and would not be taking anything under the £35m mark, but if the player wants to go, then off you go, pal. I don’t want anyone at Chelsea that doesn’t want to be there.

Saying that, Luiz seems to love the club and always plays with 100% commitment. There’s even been talk of him taking over the captaincy in the coming years. I don’t see him leaving in all honesty. The supposed dislike Mourinho has of Luiz’s style is a lazy assumption to make as well. Jose’s teams have a history of including a slightly more erratic, ball playing centre half. The likes of Carvalho and Ramos in particular slot into this category, and I’m confident David Luiz will continue to be an important part of our future going forward.