COMMENT: The Uruguay forward is inching closer to signing for the Catalan club from Liverpool this summer, but what role will he fill at Camp Nou?

Barcelona’s striker search is nothing new. Both Tito Vilanova and Tata Martino were keen to bring in a centre-forward to share the load over the last two seasons. The Catalan club, it was often said, needed a Plan B. But that Plan B has now become Plan A – and its name is Luis Alberto Suarez.

Previously, Barca had set their sights on a ‘new Henrik Larsson’ – a veteran striker who could emerge from the bench and change games, content to wait for his chances on the sidelines. But such players don’t come along every year and the Blaugrana never really found another one. And after a season in which only the Spanish Supercopa was won, it’s time for a change of direction.

Coach Luis Enrique has clear ideas on how he wants to manage the club and one of his requests on arrival was the signing of a top-class striker. They don’t come much better than Suarez.

Liverpool won’t be bullied into selling on the cheap, especially after their star striker signed a new contract just last summer, but Suarez is hugely ambitious and hasn’t hidden his desire to move to one of Europe’s elite in the past, “There’s still nothing concrete, but it would be difficult to say no to Real Madrid,” he said in May of last year.

Ultimately, he ended up staying, but Barcelona are pushing hard for his services this time around as Madrid look to the less controversial figure of Radamel Falcao instead. “Barcelona want a forward and defenders,” club president Josep Maria Bartomeu admitted on Tuesday. “We have players in mind and they excite us.”

Due to his four-month ban for biting Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini in Uruguay’s 1-0 win over Italy on June 24, Suarez will be out of action until late October. When he returns, however, he will offer fresh tactical options to the Catalans.

With Alexis Sanchez still considering his future and looking likely to leave Camp Nou this summer, Suarez will join Lionel Messi and Neymar in a trident formed by South America’s three most-feared forwards.

In terms of his footballing abilities, Suarez ticks all the boxes for Barca. The former Ajax striker is 27, approaching what should be his prime, and can feature in a number of positions. Comfortable in the centre-forward role, where he struck 31 goals for Liverpool in the Premier League last season, the Uruguayan can also operate as a support striker or on either flank. He has the ability to drop deep, roam free, dribble from an inside forward role or act as a playmaker.

“Luis Suarez is the best striker in the world,” Diego Maradona said before the World Cup. And Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, speaking in May, added: “He’s a superstar who can play in a number of different positions. He has it all. I’d recommend [to] any team in the world that they should sign him.”

Ultra-competitive, fast, hard-working and hungry, Suarez is just the type of player Luis Enrique admires and the new coach sees the Uruguayan as an essential element in his new Barca team. The 27-year-old is likely to start on the right, at least at the beginning, with Messi in the middle, but the idea is for the three forwards to roam and rotate, switching positions just as Luis Figo, Rivaldo and Patrick Kluivert used to in the side in which Luis Enrique himself played under Louis van Gaal.

For Uruguay, Suarez has often started in a three-man forward line alongside both Diego Forlan and Edinson Cavani, mostly in the middle but sometimes on the left or on the right. Such flexibility is a big boost for Luis Enrique and another alternative – perhaps the best one of all – is for Messi to operate in a deeper role as he has for Argentina in this World Cup, with Suarez and Neymar further forward.

Tactically and technically, the Suarez signing seems perfect for a Barca side in need of renovation and renewal. Now, all he has to do is behave himself…

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Eugenio Figueredo confirmed the Liverpool star will miss next year’s Copa America but says he is battling to see the suspension reduced

Luis Suarez’s nine-month international football ban has been blasted as “barbaric” by the president of the South American Football Confederation.

The Uruguay international was handed the suspension by Fifa for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chillieni during his side’s World Cup group stage win in Natal, which saw Oscar Tabarez’s side qualify for the last 16 – where they were eventually eliminated by Colombia.

Suarez was also handed a four-month ban from all football-related activities – which will rule him out of Liverpool’s first nine Premier League and three Champions League games next season should he stay at the club – and was ordered to pay a hefty fine.

The chief of Conmebol, Eugenio Figueredo, confirmed that Suarez will miss Uruguay’s Copa America matches next year and some of the team’s 2018 World Cup qualifying games, but stressed he is working to see the suspension reduced.

“Right now I’m defending Suarez 24 hours a day and, for now, the penalty is for official matches of the Uruguayan team, but not friendly matches or anything like that,” Figueredo told Uruguay radio station, Sport 890.

“If the referee had seen something, he could not have acted on his own, but the 34 cameras that Fifa have detected what the three officials failed to detect.

“Suarez’s punishment is barbaric. I hope that [the ban] is not for as many games. Already there are people working on reducing the ban.

“Our goal is to see that the ban is lowered and we are working on that.”

Uruguay will be hoping to defend their Copa America title next year in Chile, and should la Celeste make it to the final of the tournament, Suarez would only miss two of his side’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Arsenal have submitted an offer for the Chile star that matches Barcelona’s valuation but must now convince the forward to choose them over his other suitors

EXCLUSIVE
By Wayne Veysey

Arsenal have tabled a €40 million bid for Alexis Sanchez as Arsene Wenger prepares a charm offensive to land the Chile World Cup star ahead of rivals Liverpool.

The Gunners boss will meet Sanchez’s agent in Brazil this week to convince the forward that he should move to the Londoners ahead of the other clubs competing for his signature.

Liverpool are set to request Sanchez as part of a possible part-exchange deal that could take Luis Suarez to Barcelona, while Manchester United and Juventus also have a strong interest in signing the Chilean.

Arsenal were preparing a bid that matched the Catalan club’s €40m valuation of Sanchez after making him their No.1 forward target for this window.

The Gunners have now made their move and are confident the transfer fee and structure of payments they have proposed to Barca will be accepted by the Spanish giants.

Wenger will now attempt to convince Sanchez, whose World Cup ended last Saturday when Chile were eliminated on penalties by Brazil, that he should choose Arsenal ahead of his other suitors.

It was widely reported that a Barcelona delegation were to meet with Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre in London on Wednesday for an opening round of talks over signing the striker.

Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu admitted that bids had been tabled from a number of clubs, although he was keen to stress that the Catalunya side are not necessarily going to sell up this summer.

“I can confirm we have received offers from several clubs for Alexis Sanchez,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Not just for what he has done at the World Cup but for what he has done before.

“He’s a player there in the market that people have got an eye on but he’s our player for the moment and he’s a basic member of the way our team plays.

“He fits our system, he had a magnificent season last season. He scored a lot of goals, provided assists, had a lot of the ball.

“He’s a player we would like to have with us next season. But we are getting a lot of calls from clubs who are making offers to buy Alexis Sanchez.”

Sanchez, 25, is a player in demand after a series of outstanding World Cup displays and a season in which his 21 goals were bettered at Barcelona only by Lionel Messi.

Arsenal had sent a delegation to Madrid to hold talks with a mystery forward, who is now understood to have been Sanchez.

The Gunners have now stepped up their efforts to sign Sanchez and the seriousness of their pursuit is demonstrated by the fact that both chief executive Ivan Gazidis and contract negotiator Dicky Law were involved in the negotiations in Madrid.

Wenger and his scouts believe Sanchez has the attributes to be developed into a centre-forward at Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners’ top priority this summer is to clinch the signing of an elite forward who can provide competition next season for Olivier Giroud, the only senior striker at Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal tried to sign Julian Draxler in a £30m deal in January and failed with moves for Luis Suarez, Gonzalo Higuain and Wayne Rooney last summer as well as a last-ditch loan bid for Demba Ba.