Mourinho flatly denies Benatia rumours

Rumours are flying around the Italian press that Chelsea have lodged an official offer for Roma defender Medhi Benatia. This, of course, would be A Big Deal; the centre back has been valued at something in the vicinity of €35 million and has been linked to almost every big club in Europe this summer.

Of course, being linked to everyone in Europe is probably a sign that most of the rumours around you are bogus, and my guess is that Benatia's people are using his status as a hot property to either convince Roma to give him a substantial raise or to finally connect him with some club that wants to buy him. Rumours in the Italian press aren't really much to go on as far as Chelsea are concerned, 'official bid' or no.

Jose Mourinho, for his part, has completely denied any Chelsea interest in adding to the back line:

We're not interested. We Cahill , Ivanovic and Zouma . Besides, we also want to integrate into the first team calmly Christiansen , who will train with us also playing a few minutes in the league when you can use it. normally will play with our youth, but will train with the first team. I think we're really in place so we are well placed in the defense.

Source: Romanews.eu (google translate).

I know that depth at centre back is a bit of a worry with David Luiz replaced by the far less experienced Kurt Zouma, but I don't think that this one has any legs. Sorry, Benatia fans.