Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has revealed the club turned down two world-record bids of £50million for Thierry Henry.
The France striker signed a new four-year contract on Friday after months of speculation linking him with a move to Barcelona.
Real Madrid were also reported to be interested in signing the star forward and Dein confirmed both offers came from Spain.
"We turned down world-record deals for Thierry from two Spanish clubs - and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to work who they were," he told the Sunday Express.
"The two clubs in question don't like to be outbid by each other. They were ready to go for it. Our message was clear. He wasn't for sale and I like to think Thierry heard that."
When asked if Henry had come close to leaving, he said: "I think he probably did. And of course, he only made his decision on Thursday evening and we were on tenterhooks for the best part of six to eight months.
"I don't know whether he did (talk to another club), but it was quite clear because we had two of the biggest Spanish clubs in touch with us wanting to know what was going to happen to his career at the end of the season.
"Obviously, we were not in a selling mode. We wanted to keep Thierry, we believed Thierry had to be part of our future and we were going to do everything possible to make him stay at Arsenal."
Henry finally told manager Arsene Wenger he was staying on Thursday, 24 hours after his Champions League dream was ended by Barcelona, one of his possible destinations.
