Denis Suarez still believes he can salvage his Arsenal loan move, because the club's warm weather break in Dubai will serve as a pre-season for him ahead of the last two months of the campaign.
Suarez has so far been underwhelming since his switch to the Gunners in January but sources close to the player have told Sportsmail that with the decisive games of the season still to be played, he has not given up on winning over supporters and the club.
There has been some sluggishness since his arrival in north London but that is seen both by the Suarez camp and by coach Unai Emery as a natural consequence of him having played so little for Barcelona since the start of this season.
There is a hope that he can take full advantage of the international break and hit the ground running when the team jet back to England after next Tuesday's friendly with Al-Nasr Dubai SC.
The 25-year-old's focus is on Arsenal's next match against Newcastle and as the club try to get into top four and reach the Europa League semi-finals, he believes he still has a part to play.
Suarez was even advised against moving to the Premier League in January because of how tough the physical demands could be on a player who had made just two substitute appearances in the league for Barcelona in the first half of the season.
He accepted the challenge because he believed the opportunity was too good to turn down.
With Barcelona's most expensive signing Philippe Coutinho, plus summer recruits Arthur Melo and Arturo Vidal, all needing minutes, Suarez found it tough under Ernesto Valverde at the start of the current campaign.
Barcelona had been keen on sending Suarez to AC Milan last summer but he dug his heels in and stayed at the Nou Camp where he has a contract until 2021.
When he did play for Valverde, above all in the Copa del Rey, he impressed but the pressure on the coach to give other, more expensive players playing time limited his chances.
That alerted Emery, who moved for Suarez thinking his quick-thinking, quick-footed style in the second line of strikers would give Arsenal something that Manchester City have had for years from David Silva.
He moved to Arsenal to bury the ghosts of that past failure in England at City.
Suarez was 17 years old when he became one of the club's bright young things. Gary Cook and Brian Marwood did the deal for City to pay Celta Vigo £850,000 for him.
He believes his chances at City were limited because of poor timing - had he been at City in the Manuel Pellegrini or Pep Guardiola era things might have been different.
This time, back in the Premier League with Arsenal, it seemed the timing was right and so was the environment.
Emery coached Suarez at Sevilla and wanted to make it work. The player was more mature and better prepared for the challenge. Emery has so far held back the loanee, believing he still needs to find the rhythm of the Premier League.
Neither he nor Suarez has given up on that happening after the extra work in Dubai starts to have an effect.