Chelsea have already had two offers, believed to be worth £17m and then £21m, for the highly rated Brazilian centre-back rejected as Benfica seek a fee nearer £25m for the 23-year-old. Luiz has a release clause set at €50m (£42m) in his contract, which runs to 2014, though there is an acceptance at the Portuguese club that the time may now have come to cash in on their prized asset.
Chelsea would consider a player-plus-cash deal in an attempt to reach agreement, although they would prefer not to offer one of their young Dutch defenders, Patrick van Aanholt or Jeffrey Bruma. Benfica have indicated they are not interested in taking the Portugal international Paulo Ferriera from Stamford Bridge – they have already secured the Brazilian defender Jardel from Olhanense in this window – but could yet be interested in his compatriot José Bosingwa.
The 28-year-old right-back is due to remain in London until 2012 with Chelsea expected to take up the option of a fourth year on the contract signed upon joining from Porto for £16m in 2008, though Benfica could yet test Chelsea's resolve to keep him in the short-term. The possibility of including another player from the Premier League club, such as Slobodan Rajkovic and Nemanja Matic who are on temporary deals at Vitesse Arnhem, could also be explored.
Both Bruma, who has attracted interest from PSV Eindhoven and Hamburg, and Van Aanholt could yet move on loan for the second half of the season, though neither has been discussed in the talks with Benfica over Luiz. Chelsea are the only suitor for the versatile player, with Manchester City having apparently decided against bidding this month.
The club do have contingency plans in place should their pursuit be frustrated, with their list of potential recruits understood to include the Bolton defender Gary Cahill, Wolfsburg's Simon Kjaer and Atletico Madrid's Diego Godin. Interest in the Ajax right-back Gregory van der Wiel is long-standing and the Dutch international is expected to move to Stamford Bridge in the summer, when Ferreira may well move on.
Releasing a senior player to Benfica as part of any deal for Luiz would represent a risk of sorts for Chelsea, whose squad is relatively thin. Didier Drogba revisited the club's decision to dispense with a number of senior players last summer when asked why the side had endured such stuttering form over the past two months.
"We've had a lot of injured players, and the team has changed from last year," he told Sports Illustrated. "We lost five great players in [Michael] Ballack, [Juliano] Belletti, Deco, [Ricardo] Carvalho and Joe Cole. And we replaced them with young players like Bruma, [Gael] Kakuta, [Josh] McEachran and Van Aanholt. They are good players, but they need time to adapt."
The Ivorian, who has scored eight goals this season, addressed his own form after struggling with malaria before Christmas. "I won't say I'm happy because we're having a difficult moment, but when you look at the amount of games I've played and the number of goals and assists I've had, I know it's not the best, but it's not bad. And I can continue to improve that.
"I'm not worried about my performance. What is really important for me is for the team to go back to the winning way. If we win the league and I score only 10 goals, for me it's fine," Drogba said.
Asked whether the seven-point gap from the leaders, Manchester United, could be bridged as the Londoners seek to defend their title, Drogba added: "I think first of all instead of thinking about winning the title we should think about winning two consecutive games. Then we'll see.
"It's not a joke, it's true. We have to think about winning two consecutive games. That's being realistic, and it shows how bad we've been doing for the last month and a half. It's something that has to change, and I think we're not far [from that]. It's going to come back. Not that I'm not worried. But now everybody is coming back from injuries, so it is going to help us a lot."
Udinese have claimed that Chelsea have shown interest in their midfielder Alexis Sánchez. "With Chelsea we talked £25m," said the president, Gianpaolo Pozzo. "I want this figure, if not more."
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