Werder Bremen general manager Klaus Allofs today insisted no clubs are close to agreeing a deal for Mesut Ozil despite Chelsea and Barcelona stepping up their efforts to sign the Germany star.
Chelsea are believed to have been involved in intense negotiations over the past 48 hours for the 21-year-old, who has just one year left on his contract.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti is keen to strengthen his squad having seen Chelsea lose four consecutive games in pre-season and the club are prepared to pay around £13million for his services.
It has been reported in Spain that Barcelona have already agreed a fee for Ozil and are now about to begin discussing personal terms with the attacking midfielder.
Manchester United are also in the hunt but Allofs is adamant that nothing has changed.
He told Standard Sport: "There is nothing new to say at all. Our philosophy is only to talk about transfers if it is really serious and that is not the case at the moment."
Meanwhile, Chelsea have had a move to sign Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic rejected by manager Tony Pulis.
Ancelotti is concerned over the quality of the back-up keepers to Petr Cech, with Hilario and Ross Turnbull guilty of making terrible errors in the past few weeks.
The Italian has been forced to play them because Cech has been sidelined with a calf injury, although he is expected to return to face West Brom on Saturday.
Ancelotti has been encouraged to look elsewhere for a No2 and Pulis said: "We are trying to bring players in, not let our better players go."
