Andreas Christensen will not be heading out of Chelsea in the January window despite being heavily linked with a transfer move to AC Milan, says Blues manager Frank Lampard.
Speculation has suggested that the Denmark international could be deemed surplus to requirements at the club.
Chelsea, who are free to spend again after seeing a transfer ban lifted, are said to be monitoring alternative centre-back options.
It has been reported that a big-money raid could be launched on West Ham for Issa Diop, with there remains a £40 million buyback clause in Nathan Ake’s deal at Bournemouth.
In order to get either of those deals done, it was expected that Chelsea would look to free up space in their team by selling Christensen.
“I can rule it out,” Lampard said when asked about the chances of Christensen leaving the club.
“I like Andreas as a player. I’ve always liked him. I used to train with him and saw the talent coming through.
“What I want from Andreas to be is the best he can be. When you see him and you see the height, the athleticism and the quality on the ball, particularly in choice of pass, then I think he can be all the things I want him to be and I want to work towards that. He knows that.”
Pressed on where he feels Andreas Christensen needs to improve, Lampard added: “The reality is we have competition at centre-back.
“They’re not easy conversations for me because I have to choose on what I see and generally most weeks, two of them won’t be that happy. One particularly not happy.
“But as with all the players I want to work on parts of the game I think they can improve and with Andreas you can watch him against Aston Villa and he was immense.
“He was great to watch, he had everything in a centre-back, and then sometimes if we are coming up against teams that are physical and ask a question then Andreas really has to stand up.
“I don’t mind saying it because I think he knows he needs to know that. But what I will say those little bits in his game can really make him the fantastic centre-half I think he can be.
“And he is certainly a player that gets slightly misjudged on age. I think he’s been around a long time and went on loan at a young age and did particularly well and people think that he’s probably older than he is. He’s still relatively young so that’s absolutely on his side.”
