Because it was supposed to be announced on monday, 'cos then the new signing would also be presented.

Henry: Only Barca Could Lure Me

Sat 23 Jun, 09:09 PM

Thierry Henry has claimed he would only have left the Emirates Stadium for Barcelona - because they play "the Arsenal way".

The France striker is on the verge of clinching a reported £16million move to the Nou Camp after finally deciding his time in north London must come to an end.

Henry is due in Catalonia on Sunday after the two clubs agreed the terms of the deal, with the Gunners claiming earlier today that just a medical and the "completion of formalities" stand between the move taking place.

In an open letter to The Sun, the 29-year-old claimed uncertainty over manager Arsene Wenger's future was a major factor in his decision to leave the Gunners, and also cited the departure of former vice-chairman David Dein, a close personal friend of Henry's, as another reason to quit for Spain.

Henry has now expanded on the logic behind his prospective move, and insisted Barca's footballing philosophy means it is his only possible destination after Arsenal.

"I left Arsenal to go to Barcelona because, no disrespect to any other team, but there are only two teams in the world who play football the way I like it," he told Arsenal's official website.

"That is the way the people here like it - the Arsenal way.

"That is how we play football here and 'we' play football there.

"If I can say that is one of the is the main reasons for (choosing) Barcelona. The football they play is attractive to watch."

Henry's apparently certain departure has come as a massive blow to the club and its supporters, who are still raking over the ashes of another disappointing season.

A fourth-placed finish in the Barclays Premiership for a second season running failed to meet expectations, while there was no consolation to be found in the cup competitions where a final defeat by Chelsea in the Carling Cup was as good as it got for Wenger's men.

But Henry believes Gunners fans have every reason to be optimistic despite his decision to jump ship, and is adamant the talent is already there to fill his sizeable boots.

The former Juventus and Monaco frontman compares the situation now facing Arsenal to that encountered in 2005 when former captain and midfield lynchpin Patrick Vieira left for Juve.

Cesc Fabregas emerged immediately as a world-class replacement and was central to a run to the Champions League final the next season.

And Henry believes history will repeat itself in his wake.

He continued: "The team here is growing and there is some amazing talent here and I do think this is the right time for Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner, who is coming back from Birmingham, to shine.

"Hopefully they will do it. As soon as you know they can do it, they will forget about me, that's the way it is.

"When Patrick left everyone was devastated, including me and then after that a little guy came around called Cesc Fabregas and, although I didn't agree with it, everyone started saying 'who needs Patrick Vieira'?

"I don't believe what everybody is saying about the club collapsing, having a lack of players and everyone leaving. I think it is untrue.

"Cesc Fabregas is a world-class player, Robin van Persie is a world-class player, hopefully Adebayor will become a world-class player, Tomas Rosicky is a world-class player, Jens Lehmann is a world-class player, (Kolo) Toure and (William) Gallas are world-class players. You can go through the whole squad like that."

Ohhh but I though u were one of those that was for young players

Glade u jumped ships

Never...I'm all for youth, youth wins u matches, experience wins you cups. If you get what I mean.

Haha .. Experience can win you matches too .. Assuming u watched the CL final

Then again .. It will be interesting to see how the youth of Arsenal will hold out next season

It all depends on how focussed Arsene will be, especially with his quitting after next season.

Right now Arsene's experience will be the only thing that could help Arsenal compete with the top 3.

If Wenger signs a couple of very good players, Lehmann finds his old form, Rosicky and Fabregas scores more and RvP avoids injuries, we could do good.
Maybe not win the premiership, but definately compete in all three cups.

You guys are Arsenal fans, right?

I think his... "old" form has found him instead...

Yeah and if Boriello scores 30 next season, Kaladze becomes better than Kaka in midfield, Dida doesn't let 1 goal in, Inzaghi is never offside, yeah I think you get my point...

At this moment in time Arsenal are down and out, they only have £16 mil to spend apart from that they have no transfer funds due to the stadium, I get the feeling Fabregas could be the next one and then it really is over...

16 million?
lol, when we sell Flamini and Reyes+Wengers original deposit...thats not 16 million!
Fabregas will stick with Wenger, so hel'l be at The Emirates for at least one more year.

@Fillippo Simeone, I'm the only Arsenal fan here.

Yep, but this discussion turned into a Arsenal topic, with a sorrowful tone,...like, "let`s save Arsenal" .

Oh, they will do just fine, like they did when Vieira went off. The`ll stay at heigh positions; will they win trophies? I don`t care, I never liked the Premiership...but hey, since you chear for Arsenal, and I dont have any favorites there, I`ll be now support the Gunners...

Flamini will get you jack s**t... Reyes I forgot maybe 8/9M, I still don't think 25m will be enough to get you out of it, you could just say it was just Henry but it's like Milan losing Kaka, Man United losing Ronaldo, this is bad news... well for you

Original deposit+Muamba+Henry=60mil -Fabianski4mil=56mil.
If we sell Reyes for 9mil and Flamini for 3mil...68millions.
Taking the clubs inability to cash in good on stars, we should have around 50-60 million buying money.

/ EDIT: A Arsenal friend of mine told me this .. Not sure if there is any truth to it /

I'm sure you already know this, but Wenger is a lot more than a manager to Arsenal .. Wenger has (a degree in Engineering and..) a master's degree in Economics .. Add that to his loyalty to Arsenal (or could it be Dean anyways.. ) and the responsability that he feels for the club. He has helped Arsenal come out of the RED in terms of balancing Arsenal's books by demanding little and supporting a priority of a healthy financial atmosphere in the board room.

Meaning Wenger has enough funds to rebuild after Henry .. He doesn't need to count nickle and dimes with Viera and Henry's respective departure (or that of any others for this matter..), he already has a good amount in the budget to get the club back on it's feet.

The main problem Arsenal would face, is if they don't invest in experience. If they don't do that this summer, mark my words, Arsenal wont reach a top 4 finish

Locke, Arsenal are in huge amounts of debt after building that stadium, only Chelsea are in bigger debt than you.

If you spend more than £25m this summer I'll eat my bed, it isn't happening. £16m from Henry and £9m from Reyes.

We'll see who the new forward is shortly, I'm sure.

As for debt...do you know how much money wer'e making from 60 000+ seats and all the other stadium facilities?

The majority of the money you make form ticket sales goes to wages. It's going to take you a long, long time to pay off £300m+.

Well with Henry gone, thats one HUGE wage gone with him...
And from sponsorship and CL, thats some penny's too.

My bet: Babel from Ajax.

Thierry-like, young, wants to go to EPL...

The amount of money in terms of sponsors and stuff will go down quite dramatically with Henry not playing now though

Do you know why it's called the Emirates stadium?? Cause those guys gave Arsenal £220m to build it...

So where does their huge debt come from?

I was just assuming it was that, SSN had a repot in clubs in debt. Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs were all £150m+ in the red.

EDIT: I found this on BBC. My bad, they aren't £300m in debt, just £262m.

BBC

Arsenal's debt increases by £100m
Arsenal's Emirates Stadium
Arsenal moved into the Emirates Stadium at the start of the season
Arsenal's debt has increased by more than £100m following their move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium.

Gunners chairman Peter Hill-Wood has announced that their overall debt has risen from £153.3m in 2005 to £262.1m.

"As well as completing the new stadium we have also refinanced the related debt," said Hill-Wood.

"The refinancing is beneficial as it secures a financing arrangement for the long term and also frees up more cash-flow for investment in the team."

The figures also showed that Arsenal's operating profits before player trading and exceptional items was £11.3m, which was down from £32.6m the previous year.

The level of pre-tax profits from the sale of players was up to £19.2m, while Arsenal's run to the Champions League final meant their football business increased turnover to £132.1m.

With Chelsea they have Roman and his 15 billion dollars. He won't let the ship sink.

Chelsea are in a worse position than Arsenal I think.

I don't believe Roman's spent all that much money on the club, it's all loans. Can you see him paying out every week on their ridiculous wage bill?

Obviously he has the power to pay back the loans whenever necessary, something Arsenal don't have.

i think reyes is worth more than 8-9 and i'm pretty sure arsenal told real if they wanna keepp him the price is 20m... so thats gonna help a lot. if athletico or some other spanish side get him i think arsenal will ask for a little less, lets say 15m.

They only paid £10m for him, so there's no way they;ll get more than that, he's been disappointing.

The fact that Reyes wants to leave won't help matters, they'll just offer lower prices knowing Arsenal have to sell.

Yeah when he originally came in he paid off all the debt and took a bunch more. He hasn't spent that much in the transfer market and I think has a strategy of really tapping into their youth system. they are making enormous amounts of money, and over the next couple seasons that debt will diminish.

Have you been to Stamford Bridge? When I went it was 50 pounds for a ticket and all of the games are sell outs. Whats stranger is I saw Tottenham versus Newcastle and it was 60 pounds.

But yes Roman can bail the team out and I think that gives them an edge over other Prem clubs. Same with Silvio and Milan. Hopefully Italy can change their financing issues because if what Galliani is saying is true then we will continue to lose out on transfer players.

I've never been to Stamford Bridge as a home 'supporter', but when Villa played there it was £42.

I saw Newcastle - Chelsea this past season, at St James' Park, I went as a Chelsea 'fan'. It was £52. It's a joke really, thankfully a friend (Chelsea fan) had got 2 free away tickets to the Newcastle game so I didn't have to pay.

I think it needs to be looked into, I know Chelsea's a rich area, but these prices are just insane.
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I think Roman's looking at it as 'Why spend the money when I can loan it?' He's in no hurry, and seems to have cut Mourinho's money supply for the time being. I'm not sure if he has a long term plan for the club (Will he be there in 15 years time?). But Chelsea are in safe hands, I know it's his club, but Mourinho is a genius he should let him get on with everything and stop interfering so much. I do think Chelsea have 'ruined' the league with all this money, but I'd rather that than United keep winning the league.

They'll invest in French restaurants!!

Sorry for double post.

^

Henry farewell speech

For the last time, farewell...

Hey you Arsenal chearers,...just to add some news,...Arsenal has signed croatian striker Dudu (Da Silva) from Dinamo for a four-year contract..

Arsenal fans are going through a tough time right now, don't make things worse.

But its really true,...
Oh, and Dudu is a fine striker,...

Yeah, I was only kidding.

yeah guys lets not laugh at them. Remember how we felt when the world was laughing at us when sheva moved. It's not easy losing your "only' scorer.

Arsenals was Henry,...

Ours is still here with us - Pippo...