Denis Suarez set to join Arsenal on loan

Barcelona and Arsenal are nearing a deal that would see Denis Suarez join the Gunners on loan for the rest of the season.

Denis Suarez is set to reunite with Unai Emery at Arsenal as the London club has reached an agreement with Barcelona that will see the player join on a loan for the remainder of the season. Suarez also reached an agreement with Barcelona to extend his contract until 2021 which, according to reports, played a significant role in Barcelona agreeing to the loan.

Apart from the loan, Arsenal will also have an option to buy Suarez for around €25-€30 million. They also agreed to pay the Catalan club €2 million for the loan.

It was not an easy negotiation between the two clubs and the player. Barcelona wanted Arsenal to either buy Denis outright or include a mandatory purchase option once the loan ended. Citing financial restraints, Arsenal made it very clear that at the moment they were only interested in a loan.

Barcelona then broke off negotiations deciding instead to study offers from Spanish clubs. Real Betis were the club that appeared to be in pole position to acquire Suarez since they would be willing to eventually make the move permanent. For obvious reasons, Barcelona preferred the offer from Betis and put some pressure on him to accept the move. They went so far as to not include him in the match day squad in their Copa del Rey game against Sevilla.

In all likelihood, this puts an end to Denis Suarez’s career at Barcelona. He initially joined Barcelona from Manchester City and played a few seasons with Barcelona B. He was then loaned to Sevilla and later Villarreal before Barcelona brought him back on a permanent basis. It was with Sevilla, under Unai Emery, where Denis started putting in consistent performances and drawing attention from the manager. He played an even more important role when he moved to Villarreal and it was his performances there that caused Barcelona to buy him back in 2016.

Unfortunately, he played very little under Luis Enrique and the same under Ernesto Valverde. While not explicit, one of the reasons why many believe he didn’t play as often was because of a clause in his contract that if Denis Suarez played ten games, then Barcelona would pay Manchester City €800,000.

A change of scenery is something he needed and with a manager who counts on knows how he plays in Unai Emery, hopefully Suarez will be able to revitalize his career at Arsenal.