Henry sad to leave
24 Jun 2007 - 12:24:44
Thierry Henry has admitted that the decision to leave Arsenal and sign for Barcelona after spending the last eight years with the Gunners was an extremely difficult one to make.
The 29-year-old Frenchman has agreed a £16million move to the Catalan giants only 12 months after pledging his future to Arsene Wenger's side.
He told the club's official website: "Arsenal will always be in my blood and in my heart and I will always remember you guys.
"I said I was going to be a Gunner for life and I didn't lie because once you are a Gunner you will always a Gunner. The club is in my heart and will remain in my heart forever.
"I am going to miss everybody. It's going to be a huge miss. I will become now an Arsenal fan and look always for the result. I always gave 100 per cent. I hope you appreciate what I did here. I appreciated what you did for me.
"I would like to thank everybody I have been involved with at Arsenal, especially the boss and Mr Dein. Before Mr Dein left, for whatever reason, I went to the boss and said 'I don't want to leave'.
"There had been a lot of speculation about me and I assured him that I did not want to leave.
"But after Mr Dein left that unsettled the team and the boss. Especially as at the moment he has not committed himself to the club.
"He said he will see out his contract but you cannot be sure if he is going to go or stay (at the end of next season).
"Hopefully he is going to stay but I need to be certain and reassured of that. Everybody knows I am 30 [in August].
"The boss being unsettled, Mr Dein going, it did unsettle me a bit. After that I had thoughts of leaving the club."