Sources close to Barcelona indicate that Arsenal's pursuit of David Villa may be futile.

According to popular La Liga journalist Guillem Balague, Barcelona will not accept any bid for David Villa in the January transfer window, but they will allow him to leave in the summer, as they can replace him by moving their deal for Neymar forward a year.

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Arsene Wenger rang Villa recently in an attempt to talk him round, but got the impression that the Spaniard wanted to stay until the end of the season and see what his situation is like then.

Villa has also been speaking to an Arsenal player for a few weeks about life in London and under Wenger, but it is unknown whether this is a recent development and may have changed his mind.

What we do know is that Villa would be happy to move to Arsenal, though he may wait until after January and the imminent birth of his child before joining up with the squad.

However, Barcelona do not want to lose him due to the lack of replacements available, and Villa is happy to wait until the summer to move, by which time Arsenal may not want to bring him in so urgently.

If Villa does move, his wages, often publicised as an issue, will not be so, as the striker is on around 110k a week, an amount Arsenal are willing to pay.