Barcelona are desperately trying to avoid paying Manchester City any more for Denis Suarez as they have already forked out £3.5million to the Premier League leaders despite the fact the 24-year-old Spaniard left the Etihad five years ago.

Suarez, 24, started out in the youth ranks of Celta Vigo before heading to City in 2011. However, the Spanish playmaker failed to make a single Premier League appearance for City, and was sold to Barca back in 2013, where he featured for their B team.

He had a loan spell with Sevilla before being sold to Villarreal, where his impressive displays earned him a move back to Catalonia in 2016 – but since then he has played just 54 times.

And it is no wonder he is being frozen out as Catalan newspaper SPORT claim a clause in Suarez’s initial Barca deal means that City must be paid €800,000 (£715,000) for every 10 appearances he makes for the first team.

That equates to the La Liga giants paying City an additional £3.5m, with every new invoice that arrives from City ‘received with displeasure’ by the club.

Suarez has not played a single minute in Barcelona’s last 12 games with the club trying to save money, despite telling the player they counted on him in January.

Suarez may now be heading for the Camp Nou exit door this summer, before City can take another chunk of money from the Spanish giants.