Shattered Henry to decide Arsenal future before World Cup

Arsenal's French forward and team captain Thierry Henry passes next to the trophy after the UEFA Champion's League final football match Barcelona vs. Arsenal, at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, northern Paris. Barcelona won 2 to 1.

Arsenal captain Thierry Henry has promised to settle the guessing game surrounding his future after a heartbreaking Champions League defeat by the club who may be paying his wages next season.

The 28-year-old said he would decide whether or not to sign a new contract with the Gunners before heading to the World Cup with France, and insisted Wednesday's result at the Stade to France would not affect his thinking.

"All I can say is that I'll be making a decision very soon -- in fact before the World Cup," Henry said. "Tonight's match won't come into it at all."

Barcelona are reported to be preparing a 35 million pound summer swoop for Henry, a move that would see him become the world's most highly paid player.

Yet Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said he hoped Henry would stay in north London in order to lead out the Gunners' promising young team at their new 60,000-seat stadium at Ashburton Grove.

Wenger said Henry's experience and leadership would be crucial if the Gunners' team were to continue to develop successfully. "I will try to talk to him because I have to prepare for next season," Wenger said.

"We have a young team, I feel this team is progressing and is a future big, big team. We need Thierry Henry to achieve that because he is such a big influence on our side."

Henry's Arsenal team-mate Freddie Ljungberg said he hoped the club's all-time record goalscorer would still be around next year.

"What can we say that hasn't been said," said Ljungberg. "He's a fabulous player. Of course we want him to stay."

Against Barcelona Henry looked threatening from the outset, forcing two good saves from Victor Valdes early on and tracking back tirelessly in an effort to stem the tide when the Gunners had been reduced to 10-men.

Henry had a golden opportunity to kill the game off midway through the second half after latching onto a pass from Alexander Hleb. But his tame shot was comfortably saved by Valdes and the chance went begging.

Henry blamed exhaustion for the opportunity and said he had finished the contest utterly depleted of energy.

"Yeah, we had chances but it was one against five all the time," Henry said. "I got a great pass from Alexander Hleb but I just went down like a bag of dirty clothes when I tried to shoot. I had nothing left. I was gone.

"I gave everything. Sol (Campbell) gave everything, Freddie gave everything. It was really difficult.

"I was looking at the clock thinking 'Please, can't you just start ticking a bit faster'. That's the first time in my career that I've finished so empty. In my body I feel tired. I just have nothing left."

Henry was furious with the match officials' failure to spot an off-side for Barcelona's equaliser from Samuel Eto'o, and also believed the Spaniards were lucky not to see defender Rafael Marquez booked early on.

"To fight like we did and then to see a bad decision like that was too hard for us," Henry said.

"I can take a lot of stuff but that...It's hard. The way we fought, the way we played. I'm sorry. My team deserved to finish the season with their head up and to be proud.

"You can fight, but fighting against something that you can't fight against. That's too difficult. But the history books will show that Barcelona won, and that's all that matters."

"I'm not talking about blaming the ref, I'm just talking about losing like that. But if we were going to lose I would have wanted to lose fair and square."