Real Madrid have reportedly closed down all talks involving a move for Kylian Mbappe until the January transfer window.
Madrid have long been interested in the Paris Saint-Germain striker, who is out of contract next summer, and saw a number of rejected bids by the French club at the end of the last transfer window.
But further talks within Real have now been put on halt until the window reopens in January according to El Chiringuito.
According to the report, the club has banned any inside discussion of the player, even bizarrely within the club’s facilities including in corridors.
The motive behind the ban is so that the club can maintain its focus on the current campaign where under Carlo Ancelotti they will be looking to regain the Spanish league title as well as lead a Champions League charge.
Once January comes around, Madrid will be allowed to negotiate with Mbappe over a free transfer ahead of next season.
PSG sporting director Leonardo admitted publicly that although Mbappe wanted to leave this summer, an initial £137m bid was too low – but the fact that the Brazilian said that the bid was insufficient left the door open for a move.
The second bid of £154m was met with silence before a figure of £189m was tabled on the final day of the window.
PSG are more optimistic that a new deal can be thrashed out despite the 2018 World Cup winner stalling over putting pen to paper, with Leonardo saying: ‘I don’t see Mbappe leaving at the end of the season.’
Ander Herrera, Mbappe’s PSG team-mate, meanwhile believes how his side fare this term will determine whether Mbappe will depart the Parc des Princes next summer having revealed in discussions with the 22-year-old that he told him he would not leave before the last transfer window..
‘I had an intuition that he was staying,’ said Herrera. ‘This is what he and the club were telling us. I asked him two weeks before the market ended and he said: ‘I’m here.’
‘Everything I saw did not marry up with what was happening here. What happens this season may affect Mbappe saying.’