Dein still holds Henry hope

David Dein is hopeful that Thierry Henry recognises that Arsenal have a bright future.

The Gunners booked their ticket to the UEFA Champions League final on Tuesday but, now the dust has settled, the talk has once again switched to Henry's future.

The striker has yet to commit his future to The Gunners and is being strongly linked with a move to Spain, with Real Madrid and Barcelona waiting in the wings.

Dein has made it clear that he wants Henry to be part of Arsenal's future and hopes the France superstar looks at the bigger picture.

"I would really hope that Thierry signing a contract is not dependent on one game," Dein told Sky Sports News. "Thierry knows we want him to stay, the fans want him to stay, he can see the club is very ambitious.

"There is something very special going on at Arsenal at the moment, we are building a magnificent 60,000-seat stadium which will be state of the art, we have a lot of youngsters coming through, we have got something building well for the future and we want Thierry to be a part of that.

"I think he will make his decision towards the end of the season, he will decide and we will see where we go.

"I would hope nobody would want to leave Arsenal in the near future."

Gunners vice chairman Dein reserved special words of praise for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

"I call Arsene Wenger the miracle worker," stated Dein. "He has been with us since October 1996 and he has done miracles and we have now got to a Champions League final and I think we were very much outsiders.

"We have done it with a bunch of youngster and older players and all credit to them.

"It is Arsene Wenger and his coaching staff, it is a team effort, and it is a tremendous achievement to get to a Champions League final."

Gunners fans have expressed concerns over the ticket allocation for the Paris showpiece, but Dein claims the club's hands are tied.

"It is not going to be easy," said Dein. "We will be allocated just over 20,000 tickets and we have over 23,000 season ticket holders.

"Normally Uefa allocate half the stadium to the two competing clubs and the other half to the football family, that is all the clubs around Europe and people associated with Uefa."