According to Sky Sports, Chelsea made two bids for 21-year-old Brazilian defender Marquinhos and none of them were entertained by his current employers Paris Saint-Germain.
Blues have offered two separate sums between the £25.7m and £40.4m-mark for the Brazil international.
Jose Mourinho has been on the hunt for a new centre-half and was chasing 21-year-old Everton defender John Stones all summer but saw four bids rejected by Everton for him. The bids were reported to be worth £20m, £26m, £30m and £40m.
Everton even rejected his transfer request and Mourinho had to look for alternatives, but he was too late. He targetted Zenit St. Petersburg’s Argentine defender Ezequiel Garay as an alternative but could not land him also.
Chelsea has already signed young centre-back Papy Djilobodji from Nantes on deadline day and is understood to be close signing Reading’s Michael Hector.
But they have also been keen to add the experience of Marquinhos, who has played in the Champions League and the World Cup for Brazil despite being only 21 years of age.
Marquinhos signed for PSG from Roma in 2013 and has made almost 50 appearances for the French Ligue 1 club.
Marquinhos is one of the hottest properties in world football and is ranked as the second most valued young player in Europe according to Soccerex football study just behind Raheem Sterling who moved to Manchester City from Liverpool this summer.
Marquinhos was named by British newspaper The Observer as one of the ten most promising young players in Europe. They wrote “He has the temperament to remain undaunted, the talent to succeed, and could benefit from playing alongside his club team-mate, Thiago Silva, with whom he enjoys a solid understanding at wealthy Paris Saint-Germain.
Marquinhos is a two-time Ligue 1 winner with Paris Saint-Germain. He also won two Coupe de la Ligue and one Coupe de France.
Chelsea started their season poorly and have only four points from four games and already eight points behind Manchester City who bolstered their squad even more with Kevin De Bruyne. Defense is a massive concern for Mourinho and he could not improve it much as he made a panic buy for the defender Papy Dijlobodji.