Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted defeat in the club's pursuit of Luis Suarez, insisting there is "no chance" of signing the Liverpool striker.
Arsenal have already had two bids rejected by Liverpool for Suarez, the most recent being for £40,000,001, which was designed to trigger a clause in the 26-year-old's contract which would allow him to hold talks with the north London side.
Liverpool have always insisted the clause does not force them to sell, and continue to maintain that Suarez will remain at the club.
And Wenger admits he has now been forced to look elsewhere.
"Yes," he told reporters when asked if a deal was dead.
"Absolutely no chance of that."
Wenger insists he will still look to bring in new signings before the September 2nd transfer deadline, and speaking after Wednesday night's 3-0 win over Fenerbahce in their Champions League play-off first leg, he told reporters: "It is like a poker game. People hold their cards as long as possible and see what is happening out there. In the end, they go for decisions.
"First everybody goes on holiday and nobody wants to do anything. Then in many clubs there are manager changes. They need to know the squad before they make a decision. Many, many things but it is always like that.
"Quality-wise we don’t need anybody but number-wise we are short as I told you yesterday. We lost [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain, [Mikel] Arteta and [Abou] Diaby - three international midfielders. That is why we are short.
"We tried to bring one in but we are working on that. You have to understand there is still a long way to go. The transfer market starts for me now and a lot of activity will happen between now and September 2.
"From August 21 until September 2 you have 12 days, so a lot will happen. It starts now."
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