Wenger: Why I let Henry leave.

It's not often that manager Arsène Wenger allows a player to leave the club, especially the club's all-time top scorer, club captain and who many regard as the best player in the world.

But when striker Thierry Henry submitted a transfer request to the Arsenal manager, the Frenchman did not stand in his captain's way, paving the way for him to join Spanish champions Barcelona.

Henry recently won the Champions League with his new club this week, beating Manchester United 2-0 in the final in Rome.

Wenger explains why he let Henry leave so easily: "It is not the same [if another player said he did not want to wait for trophies].

"Thierry played a long time for us, nobody else did that and he was close to the end of his career. All these players [in the current squad] are at the start of their careers so it's completely different.

"I think the exact opposite now – I don't see why we should educate the players, get some stick and when they're ready we sell them. That would be masochistic."