Thierry Henry Wants Cole to Stay

We are yet to find out if Ashley Cole will sign a deal with Chelsea or not. What we know until this moment is that Arsenal received an offer from their city rivals and that Jose Mourinho urged the gunners to make up their minds once and for all. And, even if Arsene Wenger insists on the fact that Cole is a replaceable player inside the squad, his French striker and Arsenal's idol Thierry Henry thinks differently.

Also known as Cole's closest friends - the Frenchman was invited to Cole's engagement party earlier last month - Henry praised Cole as a "decisive piece" in the squad and asked the Englishman not to leave Arsenal. According to Henry, Cole's signing out of the Emirates Stadium will be a decisive blow for the gunners.

"The loss of Vieira to Juventus was massive - like it would be if Ashley goes. Obviously we want him to stay. He is one of the best left-backs in the world. We would miss him badly. We already have injuries to Gael Clichy and Philippe Senderos. We have a lot of players out. I don't know anything about the situation with Chelsea", admitted Henry in an interview given to "The Sun" newspaper.

More, the Frenchman blames his club's officials for selling one of the squad's best players to their next title rivals. "If he goes there it will look like we are trying to catch a team at the same time as giving them one of our best assets. It would be difficult to take", argued Henry.

Although Cole is a very close friend of Henry, the English defender doesn't seem to hit it off with the team's manager, Arsene Wenger. The Frenchman got into an argument with the player last year, when Cole was trying to sign a deal with Chelsea without Arsenal knowing about it. He was caught by Wenger and fined 120.000 euros.

At the end of last season, Cole refused to sign an extension to his contract with the gunners, that is set to expire after the 2006/07 season.