By Myles Palmer
Saw my pal Philippe from France Football, who said he had bumped into my long time buddy Stewart Joseph at the tube station.
Overnight Stewart sent me an e-mail from Philippe, who had spoken to Thierry Henry after the match.
Maybe I have been too hard on TH14 recently. He IS a much nicer guy than Ian Wright or Anelka and this quote proves it.
Philippe’s e-mail to Stewart, which I hope they won’t mind you reading, was as follows :
“Of course, Arsene was asked about Dennis’ substitution. He recognised he had had a “good” game (for me, an exceptional one), but that he felt that the difference would be made physically – hence the decision to keep Thierry, who “weighs” more on the defence, in AW’s mind. He also said he could not possibly have 4 strikers on the pitch at once, but that he needed fresh legs upfront. Whatever we think, it paid off, didn’t it? Just.
“I saw Thierry after the game, who said something very sweet about the whole affair: “I had a stinker, and I knew it. I was really upset by the crowd’s reaction when Dennis was substituted, because, deep down, I knew they were right.
“Tonight, Dennis had better legs than me. I had difficulties protecting the ball, I had a bad game.If anyone deserved to go off, it was me, not him. So I decided to dig deep, to try even harder to score. I owed that goal to Dennis, to my coach, and to the crowd.”
What an amazing quote!
I have been too hard on the lad!
That, for me, is the quote of the season!
March 7th 2001