ALEX IWOBI’S FORM, GIVES BARCA HEADACHE OVER SUAREZ’S PERMANENT SWITCH TO ARSENAL

There are strong indications that the hope of Spanish Giants, FC Barcelona to push for a permanent move for their Loanee midfielder, Denis Suarez to Arsenal next summer may hit the brick wall following good performance of Super Eagles forward, Alex Iwobi in the present squad.

The Nigerian forward moved from the feeder team in the final years of Arsene Wenger days at the North London side and his stint so far has impressed the new coach Unai Emery.

However in a bid to strengthen the squad, the manager agreed with Barcelona for a loan spell for Suarez who has played below par with the Catalan side and wanted to offload many of its fringe players alongside Andre Gomez who moved to Everton FC from the beginning of the season.

Reports from Spain indicate that Barcelona are willing to push for permanent sale to make funds available to fortify the squad with players to understudy ageing Luis Suarez and a decent backup for Jordi Alba.

According to Marca, the Catalans already know where they will get a good part of the money fund they require for these deals:  from the sales of Andre Gomes and Denis Suarez to the Premiership clubs.

Denis extended his stay at Barcelona until 2021 to spend the remainder of the current, 2018/2019 season on loan at Arsenal. The Gunners will pay the player’s salary. The contract also includes a buyout clause for the London-based club.

A loan fee is reported to be in the region of £2.1million. The Gunners would have to pay around £20m if they want to sign Denis on a permanent deal. The Spaniard found it hard to get into the starting XI at Arsenal, but Barcelona still expects the Gunners to use the clause and make the transfer permanent at the end of the season.

However, while Gomez has settled down with the Everton and could translate to a permanent deal this summer, the same cannot be said of the fresh Loanee has only played an hour and six minutes of football since he joined the London side and according to James Benge, a senior football reporter with Football. London on his Twitter handle said ” Iwobi trained with the first team today (Tuesday) after suffering right ankle injury against Southhampton and that will probably change on Wednesday (today) because Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan aren’t making it easy for the Loanee to earn a permanent switch from Barcelona

Failure to displace either of the duo will mean the player will return to Spain which is not a good report for the side who are aiming to offload dead weight players from its payroll.