Thomas Vermaelen admits that Arsenal team-mate Cesc Fabregas has Barcelona in his blood.
The World Cup winning midfielder remained at the Emirates Stadium throughout the transfer window and will continue to play for the Gunners this season, despite a concerted attempt by the Catalan side to bring him back to his hometown club.
Arsenal were desperate to hang onto their star man and managed to do so, despite a host of Fabregas’s Spain team-mates based at Barca pleading with him to move to Camp Nou.
It is also widely understood that Fabregas wanted to move and he is expected to now do so next summer, with Gunners colleague Vermaelen saying he has Barcelona in his DNA, but that he will continue to dig in for Arsenal as long as he remains in red and white.
Vermaelen told Talksport: "Cesc carries Barcelona in the heart, in his DNA...therefore it is impossible for him to forget about them.
"He was determined to go to Barca last summer, he more or less confessed it in the dressing room. But that is past history.
"Now he is one hundred percent ready to put his all in to a great season with Arsenal."
Fabregas, 23, was quoted on Monday as saying: "Barcelona did all they could to sign me but Arsenal told me I had to stay, that there was no way they were going to let me go.
"In the end I had to stay - but the content of my conversation with Arsene Wenger will remain private."