Arsenal star Hector Bellerin has finally revealed the reason behind his decision to stay at the Emirates. One of the most highly-rated right-backs in Europe, the Spain U-21 international was heavily linked with Spanish giants Barcelona but the 21-year-old quashed all speculations by signing a six-year contract extension with the Gunners.

The youngster was also linked with English moneybags Manchester City. However, the Gunners handed him a deal worth £30m to make him one of the club’s top earners and ward off interests from other clubs.

And now, the full-back has said Arsene Wenger was the reason behind his decision to extend his stay at the club.

The talented full-back left Barcelona’s famous La Masia for the North London club in 2011 and since then he has developed into one of the best full-backs in Europe. As a result, the Catalan outfit was seeing him as a long-term replacement for Dani Alves. However, Bellerin said Wenger’s influence compelled him to stay at the club.

He said, as quoted by the Daily Mirror: “Arsene was really influential for me on the moment when I signed to come over here.

“He was there talking to me when I first got to the Emirates and he was one of the reasons why I signed with the club.

“Just the confidence he has given me, especially after not the greatest debut at Dortmund – my first games weren’t the best!

“From then, I always knew I wanted to repay him and that’s what I’m doing right now and obviously that is why I wanted to stay at the club.

“This year we knew it was going to be hard [to win the title] because there are so many teams with good coaches. We knew it was going to be really hard. But we’ve got the team and we’ve got the manager.

“We’ve got everything we need to be up there, so we are going to try our best, definitely.”