Arsenal news: barcelona make contact over january transfer

Suarez has played just eight minutes in La Liga this season with Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde jettisoning the 24-year-old from his plans. The central midfielder spent two years at

Manchester City in his adolescence but never made a senior appearance for the club. Suarez did enough to garner Barcelona’s interest, however, and impressed in the B team before being loaned

out to Sevilla, where a certain Unai Emery coached the diminutive creative midfielder. The Catalan club sold Suarez to Villarreal in 2015 with a buy-back clause £3.1m, which they exercised

after 11 months. But Suarez is once more finding himself strained of playing time, and The Independent have reported that the midfielder was offered to several clubs for a cut-price fee. One

of those clubs was Arsenal, who could secure the wantaway midfielder for a reported £14million. Emery could be tempted to accept Barcelona’s overtures, but central midfield is not a

priority for the Spanish coach. The Gunners signed Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira in the position during the summer and there are no fresh injury concerns about the position ahead of

the jam-packed festive fixtures. Central defence is a likelier area in which Arsenal will strengthen, with Konstantinos Mavropanos and Shkodran Mustafi expected to recover just before the

window, while Rob Holding’s return date is unknown after a knee injury. Speaking this week, Emery said: “If we can take one player to help us at centre-back, I think it's a good option.

"A transfer is not easy and the possibility with Calum [Chambers, on loan to Fulham] is maybe one option, but I don't know if we can do that.” Arsenal director of football Raul

Sanllehi revealed his uneasy outlook on the January transfer window. “I’m not a strong believer of the winter window,” he told BBC Sport in October. “Normally it’s used for emergency cases

when things are not going the way you planned in the summer window.”