Thiago Silva
Thiago Silva is Barcelona's first choice to strengthen their defense. Reuters

Thiago Silva has again dealt a blow to Barcelona’s attempts to pry him away from Paris Saint-Germain by refuting claims that he will request to leave the French champions. As he was last summer, the Brazil captain is the Catalans’ number one choice to remedy their increasingly glaring weakness at the heart of their defense. Once again, though, Barcelona look set to be disappointed.

“I have read what has been published about my supposed trip to Paris to ask the president to let me leave -- it’s completely untrue,” he told Brazilian publication Globo Esporte. “It can’t be true because I am under contract and I am going to honor it. I feel fulfilled in Paris.”

The comments follow a similar statement from the 28-year-old’s agent. “Thiago Silva is a Paris Saint-Germain player," Paulo Tonietto said. "He has a contract and is going to respect it. “Rumors are circulating today, just as they were last summer, but Thiago Silva is a Paris Saint-Germain player and he will see out his contract with the club."

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has expressed his frustration with the situation. “Thiago Silva is a player we want, both the sporting director and the coach,” he said, according to Marca. It’s not an issue of price, that’s the problem. Money doesn’t matter to them. It’s up to the player to convince them to start negotiating.”

There is another intriguing facet to the transfer saga with both Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain having also made offers for another Brazilian central defender in Roma’s Marquinhos. The 19-year-old has only spent one year in Italy, but is already tipped to as a star of the future. And the player’s agent has revealed that there is plenty of interest in his services.

“The club has informed us that they will consider offers for Marquinhos,” Roberto Calenda told Sky Italy. “PSG, Manchester United and Barcelona have made offer and Roma could accept one of them.”

It is believed that PSG have tabled the highest bid, but if the deal goes through it might improve Barcelona’s chances of extracting Thiago Silva from the French capital.

In other news, Barcelona-based publication Sport has held a vote for fans to decide which player the Blaugrana should sign to replace the recently departed David Villa as a No. 9, with Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero coming out on top. The results follow a story from the same publication earlier this month claiming that Barcelona had been offered the striker by the Premier League club.

It seems unlikely, though, that City would be prepared to dispense with the former Atletico Madrid man. City have already allowed two forwards to leave the club in the past six months in Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez and have yet to sign a replacement. Losing Aguero would leave Manuel Pellegrini’s side with just Edin Dzeko as an established option up front.

Barcelona may also be on the lookout for a replacement for Thiago Alcantara, whose move to Bayern Munich has now been confirmed. According to his agent, Mathieu Valbuena is one of the names being considered, with the gifted Marseille attacking midfielder is said to be highly rated by Barcelona.

"I can only confirm I had talks with Barca sport director Andoni Zubizarreta about Mathieu some time ago," he said, according to Sky Sports. "As his whole technical staff considers Mathieu to be a very good player, they all appreciate him."

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