Chelsea were willing to offer €100m (£86m) in an effort to lure Marquinhos away from PSG in the summer, according to reports in France.
The Blues were looking to add a centre-half in the recent transfer window.
Thomas Tuchel had the chance to bolster his ranks for the first time since joining but failed to add any new faces to his backline.
Sevilla's Jules Kounde was a major target and interest remained up until deadline day.
The emergence of Trevoh Chalobah may have also been a factor in Chelsea sticking with their options, who served them well last term.
RMC Sport though reports that a mammoth bid was ready as the Blues aimed to reunite Thiago Silva with his former PSG team-mate.
Marquinhos and Silva were partners at the back in Paris and the former has continued to grow.
The current PSG star was an early investment of the Qatari era, joining from Roma for over £30m in 2013.
For the past eight years he has been a regular at the Parc des Princes but he made it clear his preference was to remain in France.
PSG also had no interest in selling the Brazilian, who is under contract until 2024.
Tuchel though is not short of quality in defence with Silva joined by the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta.
Kurt Zouma was allowed to leave for West Ham.
Chelsea's failure to add a defender has by no means hampered them with Tuchel seeing his side concede just once in five league games, that being a Mohamed Salah penalty.
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They have 13 points from a possible 15 and sit joint top of the Premier League.
Recently their German manager said of their defence: "We are always very competitive and it is always a good feeling if it's hard to score against your team, against us because it gives you this stability, it gives you the experience during matches that you can fight through it.
"It was the basis for our success last season, it is in the moment right now. Although we have a bit too much chances for our opponents, a bit too many saves for Edouard Mendy.
"But he’s strong, I am happy that he’s strong, I am happy we have a strong goalkeeper and it is important to produce results."
Chelsea's defensive record makes for impressive reading since Tuchel took charge at the start of the year.
Frailties at the back had been cited as a major problem during Frank Lampard's tenure.
