Henry - wants Cole to stayThierry Henry is trying his hardest to convince Ashley Cole to stay at Arsenal - and would miss his friend if he moved to Chelsea.
The two clubs would appear to be deadlocked, with both parties still millions apart in their valuation of the England full-back.
The Barclays Premiership are understood to have offered £16million - but Arsenal are holding out for a deal closer to £25million.
Blues boss Jose Mourinho insists the west-London club, bankrolled by billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, will not increase their offer, and it remains to be seen whether the protracted saga will be concluded before the transfer window closes at the end of August.
Cole, 25, did not travel with the rest of the squad to Croatia for their Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night, as the wantaway defender worked on his match fitness following a delayed return from the World Cup.
Gunners skipper Henry - who reached the final with France - has also not yet thrown himself back into competitive action.
And the striker has been using time spent at the training ground doing his best to convince Cole his future lies at the Emirates Stadium.
"I am trying every day," the Arsenal captain declared.
"At the moment I am training with him, so I am trying to persuade him.
"But sometimes, in football you have to respect the decision of the guy.
"I do not even really want to go into what is happening, that is not my job."
Henry added: "We are all human beings and he knows what he is doing.
"He is still here at the moment, but sometimes you have to accept it."
The Gunners skipper knows just what an important part of Arsene Wenger's squad the England left-back has become.
Henry reflected: "You can go to any places with Ashley Cole, he will always give you 100% and he is a top man.
"If he goes, the only thing I can say is I wish him good luck, but we have to move on."
Henry believes losing Cole would be a second blow to the north London club in as many summers following the departure of Patrick Vieira to Juventus in June 2005.
It is, though, not only the loss to the team which Henry feels would be hard to take.
The Frenchman, 29, admitted: "Seeing him going there [Chelsea] is kind of strange - but after that, if he goes there, I will still speak to him, I will still phone him, I will still have a laugh with him.
"That is how the game is sometimes.
"Wherever he is going - if he is going, at the moment he is still here, you have to say that - the thing for me is that he is leaving us.
"I will not only miss Ashley Cole as a good player, one of the best left-backs in the world, I will miss him as a friend, I will miss him as a guy to hang around with.
"That is my point, the whole thing about him leaving, its not just about missing the player, he is a great guy."
Henry added: "I would love Ashley Cole to stay here, and so would every one."
Henry believes Arsenal can take great heart from their run to the Champions League final last season as they look to close what was a huge 24-point deficit on Chelsea.
The Gunners captain said: "That great run in the Champions League can only help because you saw we could do amazing stuff against amazing teams home and away.
"The team can build on that, and then maybe when we are in trouble, we can say 'hang on, we did not do that last year just all that just by luck'."
Henry continued: "You cannot look at Chelsea and feel sorry for yourself.
"You have to do with what you have and that is the way it is.
"We are all trying but somehow they are still strong, we are going to try to find another way to bring the title back."
The Arsenal captain insisted: "There is always talk about they have money and player - but they do play as a team, that is why they can win stuff and is what you can respect.
"That is what we need to do too.
"Everyone knows when we are in tune we pass the ball well and it is difficult to play against us.
"Sometimes we need to dig in and have this mentality of playing as a team. I said after the Real Madrid game last season we had it.
"Now, I just hope we can carry on the way we did and playing as team."
Henry maintains the Gunners will be going all out for the title when the new Barclays Premiership kicks off against Aston Villa on August 19.
"I never start something saying we are playing for second place - if you do, you might as well stop," the said Arsenal captain.
"With last season, everyone now knows within themselves that they can achieve stuff.
"We needed a key game - and at Madrid, you saw that we were a different team after that."
Henry rejects the notion that 'digging in' to achieve results can be detrimental to the type of football which Arsenal have become synonymous with under Wenger.
He said: "In the Champions League we did not conceded a goal for something like 10 games - and that did not stop us playing beautiful football, maybe only the game we did not was away at Villarreal."
"It can be done, to still dig in as a team and play football.
"I am just saying sometimes when you defend we need to dig in more as a team, then when you have the ball, you still can play."
Henry recalled: "I remember some games, especially when we were in the unbeaten run, teams had a go at us, tried to kick us, tried to get people sent off and we still managed to do it because we dig in as a team and when we had the ball, we were still playing."
"We have an amazing stadium, it would be great if we could bring some silverware back and make sure this stadium can be as well known as Highbury was," he said.
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