Suarez claimed he had "recommended" Chelsea's targets to Barcelona

Luis Suarez said he "recommended" reporting Chelsea target Darwin Nunez to Barcelona before joining Benfica last year.

Nunez scored 16 goals for Almería in 30 games in the Spanish Second Division in 2019/20.

The format prompted Benfica to sign him last year for around £21m. In 52 games for Portugal, he has scored 20 goals.

That includes six goals in his eight games for Benfica this season. Earlier this week it was reported that Chelsea were among the teams interested in Núñez.

Suarez spent six years at Barcelona before joining Atletico Madrid last year.

According to The Metro, Suarez revealed that he had tried to persuade Barca to sign Núñez before joining Benfica:

"When Darwin was in Almeria, I recommended Darwin to Barcelona," Suarez said.

"I have 15 years of international experience. I know one or two things about strikers.

"I told them, 'Pay attention to this, he's very nice, he shows interesting stuff'.

"They told me he was in Almeria and that he was still too young.

"But instead of paying €80 million, €90 million or €100 million now, they could have paid €15 million or €20 million and had him as a substitute, the player needed to be empowered.

"But we [supposedly] are the ones who pick the players. I've never heard of teammates trying to block transfers, not Messi, Iniesta, Busquets. ”

Elsewhere, Chris Sutton believes Chelsea are battling for the Premier League title on three horses:

"In my book, it's a three-horse race between Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.

"If City sign a striker in the summer, they could be in the Premier League. Eye masks and cigarettes may also have been distributed to their opponents.

"But the fact that City didn't make themselves [Romelu] Lukaku is where the interesting thing is.

"Chelsea did it, they were totally in this game. Like Liverpool, Salah, Mane and Jota sang in the same hymn.

"But I don't think United are title contenders this season. They got Ronaldo's guaranteed goal but conceded too many goals and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still didn't master the right tactics. ”