Unai Emery contacted Denis Suarez personally to get his Arsenal transfer over the line, according to Guillem Balague.

On Tuesday, just as the Spanish media were starting to report that Arsenal’s move for Suarez was off, suddenly the whole situation took a u-turn.

Gerard Romero of RAC1 reported that the player had agreed to extend his Barcelona deal by a year, before joining Arsenal on loan with an option-to-buy. Some reports suggested that option would be between €20m and €25m, whilst others claimed it hadn’t been agreed just yet.

Regardless of the details being finalised, the general consensus was that Suarez would be an Arsenal player imminently, and Guillem Balague says that a large amount of credit should go to Unai Emery.

Writing on Twitter, Balague talked about Suarez’s strengths, before adding that his biggest problem has been a lack of confidence in him from his managers. Emery negated that problem by calling up the player personally to tell him he trusts him.

What #AFC get with D. Suarez is a hungry player, quality in the last pass and in quick transitions, personality to demand the ball. He improved in his work rate without the ball. His main problem has been the lack of confidence of managers. Unai rang him to tell him he trusts him pic.twitter.com/pvr51n9ysn

— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) January 29, 2019

Emery and Suarez previously worked together at Sevilla, where the midfielder was on loan from Barcelona. Though he was a key part of Emery’s team in Spain, making 47 appearances, Suarez was then sold to Villarreal the next season, so the two men had to part ways.

Hopefully, they’ll now have the chance for a successful reunion at Arsenal.