Thierry always says : I’m a Gunner for life.
Last week he said, I’m with Arsene, I’ll be here as long as he is.
But Barcelona’s president Joan Laporta still wants him and would give him a four year contract. And Samuel Eto’o is coming to play in England, we hear.
Obviously, agents hype up many stories in the Spanish papers to get headlines and let everyone know which players are is available.
The Madrid press and the Barcelona press do it all the time.So most people will discount the latest Henry-to-Barcelona reports.
After all, Barcelona want Henry is not the same as Henry wants Barcelona, is it ?
Henry is 30 in August. As long as he is at Arsenal, the team revolves round him, and that is the problem I first noted in 2005.
ONE ASPECT MAKES ME WONDER : What happned after March 7.
Nobody said it was odd when the manager said Henry would not play again this season.
He came on against PSV on March 7, broke down, and Arsene said you won’t see him again till next season. He’s been playing while he’s injured, he has a groin injury, he needs a rest, he’ll come back as good as ever when he’s had a good rest.
And everybody accepted that.
But I always thought it was a bit odd because a player’s injury status usually varies from day to day and from week to week. A groin strain might be three weeks or more. The best physios in the game can’t say for sure how fit a player will be seven days from now.
After that PSV game there were still eleven Premiership games left.There were 12 weeks of the season left.
There were 33 points left to play for and if Thierry Henry could play in, say, four of those eleven games he could have helped Arsenal to claim important points.
So why did Arsene blow him out of the last three months of the season ? How did the manager know that his best striker had no chance of being fit for any of those games? Or did he think his team would be more focused if they were not waiting to find out when Thierry could play?
Nobody seemed to doubt the official story, even with 11 league games left.
Sure, Thierry Henry was unfit, but how unfit?
Did he have multiple injuries?
Did he have a chronic condition?
Was most of it mental burn-out rather than physical injury?
Arsene recently said, “I want to sign Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie in the summer.”
The bottom line that Henry is under contract. He can’t leave if the manager wants him to stay.
So it’s not really Thierry’s call. It’s Arsene’s call. If he sold Henry for £15 million, he could sign Samuel Eto’o for £30 million.
Putting it another way, he could acquire Eto’o for £15 million. And Eto’o is what this team needs most : experience, pace, skill, aggession, desire, a box player with great movement, a warrior who will make runs for Fabregas, make runs for Hleb, make runs for Gilberto, make runs for Clichy, make runs for Rosicky, and maybe, just maybe, make runs for Eboue.
And, funnily enough, I even think Eto’o might be able to play with Van Persie.
Does Henry want to leave?
No.But Patrick Vieira was didn’t want to leave either.
Vieira was a comfort zone captain that the directors allegedly wanted to sell to Real Madrid for £22 million in summer 2004. I heard that the board were very disappointed he didn’t go then,
Does Arsene want to sell Henry?
We don’t think so. But he might, in certain circumstances.
With Overmars and Petit, it was Arsene’s call and he was ruthless.With Vieira, it was Arsene’s call and he was ruthless again. He took £13 million from Juventus in 2005.
That was a huge shock to Pat and all the Arsenal players.
PS
THE CAPTION on this photo in IHT is marvellous.