David Alaba will not be leaving Bayern Munich in the January transfer window, amid links to Chelsea.
That's according to the Bundesliga outfit's head coach Hans Fllick.
The Blues are able to make moves in the transfer market as their FIFA transfer ban was reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which they served in the summer, meaning they are free to sign new players this month.
With Frank Lampard given £150m to spend, Alaba is the latest high-profile name to be linked with a move to Stamford Bridge.
According to our friends at the Mirror, the Blues were said to be weighing up a £60m bid for the Austrian in the January transfer window.
The 27-year-old has just 18 months of his contract at the Allianz Arena remaining and Bayern could be tempted to cash in on him now, rather than sell him on a cheaper deal in the summer.
Lampard wants to bolster his squad this month and signing Alaba would be something of a statement signing.
However, the Bayern head coach has issued a hands-off warning to the west London outfit.
When asked if Alaba was not for sale, Flick replied: "I would leave it that way," as per Bild. "Absolutely."
What could give Chelsea and Frank Lampard some encouragement ahead of the summer transfer window is the knowledge that Alaba would be open to a new challenge in the future.
The 27-year-old has been in the German Bundesliga since he joined Bayern Munich in 2009 and is very much a regular in the side as he's also capable of playing as a centre-half.
But he's not closed the door on a future transfer.
"I can imagine both: to either stay here or take a different path, he said in an interview with Sport1 in December.
"At the moment, however, we have goals here at Bayern Munich that I want to achieve."
