THIERRY HENRY says that Arsenal could “collapse” because of the uncertainty over the running of the club in the wake of the departure of former vice-chairman David Dein. Confirming his decision to join Barcelona on a four-year contract in a deal worth about £16m to Arsenal, Henry said his move was motivated by the departure of Dein and his subsequent fears that manager Arsène Wenger would not be at the Emirates stadium beyond next season, when his contract expires.

“It wasn’t that the club wanted to sell me,” said Henry in an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe. “It’s me saying I am ready to go, after all the recent events. David Dein leaving has destabilised the club and the manager, triggered off the whole process and set me thinking. If you take away the foundations of a building, it can collapse. I don’t think people realise the importance of David Dein for Arsenal and the fact that Arsène Wenger has not extended his contract was another important point.”

Henry will arrive in Barcelona today and is expected to undergo a medical tomorrow before signing a contract that will give him close to parity with the club’s highest-paid player, Ronaldinho, who earns a basic £125,000 a week. The agreement runs until 2011, when Henry will turn 34. It reverses the choice he made just over 12 months ago to reject a similar five-year offer from Barcelona. At the time, he said he was committing the rest of his career to Arsenal. “A year ago, it was a completely different story,” said Henry, “and I still believed in the future, and thought we could do great things.”

The departure of Dein after disagreements over how to handle the American shareholder Stan Kroenke’s growing interest in the club had dented Henry’s confidence in Arsenal. “Mr Dein was the link between players and boardroom. You can’t say one man is bigger than a club but if there are two people close to being that, it’s Arsène and Mr Dein.”

Last night Arsenal attempted to lessen the impact of Henry’s remarks by posting an interview with the player on their website in which he insisted the club’s future was healthy.

Arsenal expect to reinvest the proceeds from Henry’s sale in two new strikers, one young, with a view to the future, and another more experienced. Nicolas Anelka, the Bol-ton Wanderers striker who spent two years at Arsenal at the turn of the decade, is reportedly Wenger’s No 1 target. It was suggested yesterday that Kroenke, who met the Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, earlier this month, had offered to finance activity in the transfer market, but was turned down.

Henry says that he appreciated the challenge awaiting him at a club where Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o and Leo Messi make up a dazzling forward line with no obvious place for a fourth striker. Tensions between Eto’o and the club’s coach, Frank Rijkaard, have made theirs an uneasy relationship, although both have insisted Eto’o will stay.

The fee paid for Henry, who turns 30 in August, was justified, said Barcelona’s finance director, Ferran Soriano, by the steep incline in the transfer market. “Compare it with Franck Ribery going to Bayern [for £16.5m] or Nani and Anderson, who is 18, to Manchester United [£32m between them],” said Soriano, “and you see there is some inflation since last year.”