Vilanova and Zubizarreta don’t agree with the signing of Luiz.
A rift has occurred in the Barcelona hierarchy as manager Tito Vilanova and sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta cannot come to an agreement on the signing of Chelsea’s David Luiz, according to Mundo Deportivo.
Whilst Vilanova views Luiz as the ideal fall back if Barca miss out on No.1 target Thiago Silva, Zubizarreta is not keen and doesn’t want to pay the £26m it would require to convince the Blues to sell.
This disagreement could cause tension between the two parties as despite the manager being in charge of transfer policy, it is of course the directors that have the money and would have to sanction any offer the Catalans make.
Barca have been tracking Paris Saint-Germain’s Silva for some time, but the Ligue 1 champions are adamant the centre-back is going nowhere having spent £37m on the Brazilian just 12 months ago.
Therefore Vilanova wanted to turn the attention towards Luiz, who impressed in 2012/13 at Stamford Bridge and emerged as one of the top players at the west London club.
In a mammoth campaign for Chelsea the 26-year-old played 61 matches and was instrumental in the side’s Europa League victory over the defender’s former side Benfica.
Luiz scored a goal in either one of the semi-final legs against FC Basel as well after being asked to operate in a central midfield role by interim manager Rafael Benitez.
The Brazil international signed for the Blues in January 2011 for £26.4m and has since gone onto make 109 appearances for the club, as well as having earned 27 caps for his country to date.
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