THERE WERE people throwing in the towel in Islington yesterday. The Arsenal heartland barely took the time to absorb the news of Thierry Henry's departure to Barcelona before thoughts raced away down even darker routes.

Henry gone this summer and Arsene Wenger sure to follow him out the door in a year's time. So it is to be the end of Arsenal. Pack the kit away and dismantle the Emirates Stadium. It must be part of the grieving process that the worst possible set of circumstances is imagined for the future.

Arsenal are in a period of mourning for the loss of a player of extraordinary presence and influence. It wasn't just about the goals with Henry - although his 226 of them in 364 matches was more than anyone had scored in Arsenal's history - but the sprinkling of gold dust he gave his club as a world superstar. He was the team's face, the embodiment of its grace and style of play. Henry was to Arsenal what Roy Keane was to Manchester United and Henrik Larsson to Celtic.

But what was unprecedented was the reaction to his departure. Judging by some of the reactions yesterday, one would think that Arsenal was some piddling little club which was interesting only for its possession of one of football's greatest players and which would now disappear into oblivion without him.

The notion that in a few years' time Arsenal will not be one of the major forces in English football without Henry, or without Wenger for that matter, is laughable.

It is right and proper that Arsenal are gravely concerned about the here-and-now of the next 12 months. Selling Henry lessens them and there will be a sense of deflation and loss around the club, which may erode their ability to challenge in the Premiership and Champions League next season. Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott aren't anyone's idea of a top class trio of forwards, not yet at least, and it was no surprise to learn that the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov were quickly being touted as possible replacements for Henry.

Adding to the general wailing and gnashing of teeth in Islington was the prospect of the coming season being Wenger's last in English football. He has declined to commit his future to Arsenal beyond the end of his existing contract which runs until June 2008. Wenger has played the brinkmanship game before and always ended the tease by extending his stay, but this time may be different and the uncertainty will not help Arsenal next season.

There is resentment towards Henry for walking out despite being under contract to serve a club and a set of supporters he claimed to love "dearly". Few would hold it against Wenger if he were to leave next summer. Arsenal are in a transitional period and it would be understandable if the cerebral Frenchman were to decide that nine years in London were enough, and he had reached the natural time to hand the club over to someone else.

Henry was such an integral element of Wenger's Arsenal that it was inevitable that his departure would lead to speculation that the entire era was coming to end. Those fears were exacerbated by Henry's open letter of abdication in The Sun newspaper yesterday in which he claimed he "cannot take the chance" of being at Arsenal if neither Wenger nor David Dein are there.

Dein was the hugely influential vice-chairman who left in April because of irreconcilable differences between him and the rest of the board over the club's future. Dein welcomed a possible takeover by the American billionaire Stan Kroenke as a means to take Arsenal on to another financial level.

The rest of the board resisted with some stuffy language about Kroenke not being "the sort" they wanted at Arsenal. Given that Dein's son Darren was the best man at Henry's wedding it was obvious where the player's loyalties would lie and, sure enough, he set off for Barcelona having trotted out a few hints at Arsenal's supposed lack of ambition.

In fact the Arsenal board's attitude towards Kroenke has softened. Chairman Peter Hill-Wood and managing director Keith Edelman met him in New York last week and Kroenke remains determined to become the next overseas owner of a major Premiership club, if not now then in a year's time.

And it is Kroenke's interest which is far more significant to Arsenal than losing Henry now and possibly Wenger in a year. A Premiership club based in London with a huge fanbase is irresistibly attractive to investors (and to foreign superstar players who would rather live there than in the north) and it is inconceivable that Arsenal will permanently lag far behind Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool in terms of financial status. If that means the end of Hill-Wood and his notion that Arsenal must remain in English hands, so be it.

The club is too big to be treated as a museum piece. Arsenal's debt rose to £262millionin the most recent accounts but that was due to the new Emirates Stadium which already is paying for itself. With 60,000 seats filled for every home game it is the second largest club ground in the Premiership and generates far higher matchday revenues than Manchester United's larger Old Trafford. Whereas Highbury took in £44m a year, the Emirates generates £80m and the club is £20m a year better off - even after the annual debt repayments are made. When the airline Emirates paid £100m for the stadium name it was the biggest sponsorship deal in English football history.

Yet the only thing which feels big about Arsenal this weekend is the sense of panic surrounding the club. There is no belief that Manchester United will crumble when Sir Alex Ferguson leaves yet some maintain that Arsenal will wither away when the Henry and Wenger era is over.

Apparently a club which won ten championships and six FA Cups before Wenger arrived in 1996 will be utterly unable to attract a half-decent manager capable of building on his outstanding work.

As for Henry, he is being portrayed as the first footballer in history who will bring a giant club to its knees simply by leaving. He must be an even better player than we thought.