Arsenal boss Unai Emery has suggested "primitive" talks have been held with transfer target Denis Suarez, although he maintains it won't be easy to conclude any deals this month.
The Gunners have been heavily linked with a move for the Barcelona midfielder but Emery has been told he must dip into the loan market if he wants to strengthen his squad in January.
Suarez has been included in the squad for Barcelona's Copa del Rey clash with Levante on Thursday, but a move to the Emirates Stadium could still materialise.
"Conversations with us have been very primitive," Emery said on Thursday.
"I don’t want to say to you this private conversations with the club."
Clouding transfer matters further has been the speculation surrounding Sven Mislintat's future at the club.
Head of recruitment, Mislintat, has reportedly grown disillusioned by life at Arsenal , potentially opening the door for a move to Bayern Munich.
But while Emery admitted it would be difficult to bolster his squad this month, he insisted Mislintat and director of football, Raul Sanllehi, were working hard behind the scenes.
"This transfer [window] is not easy to take players who can help us with more performance than the players we have now," Emery added.
"The club is working. I spoke with Sven and Raul about different possibilities for players. They are working.
"It’s not easy to take players who can help us with a big performance now. It’s more one transfer [window] for something special you need.
"The club is working on the possibility to loan players. If we can take to help us for different positions in the team we can."