Even though his commitment to the Arsenal cause has been second to none this year, I don’t doubt for a moment that the young Arsenal captain’s heart lies not in North London, but with the Catalan club he grew up with. Only recently - in an interview for Eurosport’s ‘One to one’ feature - his compatriot Xavi Hernández said Fabregas has “the Barça DNA” and that he believes it’s Cesc’s ‘biggest dream to return to the club’.

The move would look even more of a certainty when you consider that Pep Guardiola’s long-standing admiration of the Catalan-born midfielder stretches as far back as 2001: when he is said to have made a gift of his legendary number four Barça shirt to the then 13 year-old Fabregas. On the shirt he fatefully wrote ‘One day, you will be the number four of Barcelona’. Guardiola of course did all he could to bring Fabregas to Barcelona last year but Arsenal’s refusal to sell meant that ultimately Barcelona were only able to bolster their midfield with the signing of Javier Masherano from Liverpool.

Arsenal and Barcelona fans are already bracing themselves for a second summer of Fabregas transfer speculation, but this time round Pep Guardiola might find it’s not only the stubbornness of Arséne Wenger that stands in his way. For a start He might also have problems convincing the suits above him. Barcelona’s Technical director, Raul Sanllehi said of the recent Torres transfer - “I was surprised by the amount spent. I know that Barcelona wouldn’t make this kind of transfer, they wouldn’t even consider it”.

But it is very difficult to imagine Arsenal Football Club letting their club captain and talisman go for much less than that paid for Fernando Torres. Torres was sold for fifty million pounds, quite a bit less than Barça’s estimated transfer budget for this year. According to Barcelona’s vice-president of economy, Javier Faus - “the limit if there are no sales, is between 35-40 million pounds, we will not spend more this year”

But it’s not only cashflow that may stand in the way of Cesc’s claim to that ‘azulgrana’ number 4 shirt. Because - as if his transfer wasn’t looking complicated enough - there’s a new kid in town too! His name is Thiago Alcantara and Barcelona confirmed last month, after his impressive first team cameos and startling displays for the Spanish U19 and U21’s, that the young play-maker (son of Brazilian world cup winner, Mazinho) would be joining the first team group permanently as of next season.

Some of you might well recall Alcántara’s devious free-kick routine with Sergio Canales against England U19’s. Well, to give you an idea of the audacity of Thiago Alcántara, he went and did the exact same thing just a week later.

Spanish U-21 coach Luis Milla certainly seems to think Thiago has what it takes to succeed at Barcelona: "He is very talented with the ball and now he is good off the ball too. Everything seems simple to him; his passing is good and he has got greater competitiveness and experience now. That will be vital when he comes to make the step up."

But if Thiago is ready to make that step up, where would Cesc then fit in? And would the Barça board still ratify his expensive signing? Anything of course could still happen in the Fabregas transfer saga. But the way things are going: Fabregas’s dream move could well remain just that: a dream!

Twitter:@benvenceremos