Arsenal make Henry 'fantastic offer'

Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood claims his club have made star striker and captain Thierry Henry "an absolutely fantastic offer" to stay at the club.

The Gunners are determined to hold on to their record goalscorer in the face of reported interest from Spanish giants Barcelona.

"I'm not going to say what (the contract) is, but it made me shudder. It's a lot of money," Hill-Wood said. "It's for five years. Arsene Wenger thinks he's physically capable of playing for another five years.

"We've made him an offer which is probably as good an offer as anybody in this country - maybe other than Chelsea - would make."

Meanwhile, Hill-Wood believes some of the club's star names are reaching the end of their Champions League shelf-life.

While backing manager Arsene Wenger's recruitment track record at Highbury over the last decade, Hill-Wood insists a changing of the guard is needed to stop Arsenal stagnating at the highest level.

He told the Daily Star: "What we've got is two or three players who are probably a year from not being good enough in the Champions League. And to replace them immediately is incredibly difficult.

"Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg, Sol Campbell....whether they have lost a yard of pace I don't know, but Arsene does know.

"You could certainly spend £30million and not replace them. And Arsene is very good at not doing that. He'd rather buy young talent. He thinks the boys he's just brought in are going to be pretty good."