october 22nd
Good morning Arsers, thanks be to Jebus it’s the weekend. A lie-in is always good. Where to start though? There’s lots going on. Most of it revolves around Thierry Henry. You can read a good piece by Henry Winter here. Read about a phone call he got from Ian Wright here. And he talks about Arsene Wenger here, saying “Arsène started my career and he restarted it“. AW gave him his chance at Monaco then ‘rescued’ him from Juventus.
As well as that he showed the faith and belief in him that made him the player he is today. I love Thierry’s quote about his difficult first few months when goalscoring looked like the last thing he was capable of. He said “At the beginning it seemed I would break the clock at the Clock End before I broke the scoring record of Wrighty.”
Then the boss spoke about the contract situation, saying “Of course, we are scared we could lose him. But if he signs an extension to his contact tomorrow, he could still leave at the end of the season. If he says he wants to leave, then who can stop him?”
He also scotched some rumours that some people are happy to perpetrate, that the club would be happy to sell Henry because they’d make a lot of money. He said “I can understand the worry of the fans, I’m a fan as well. But I can’t decide when he signs. We are not in a position where we look to make a profit, we want to keep our players.”
And he’s right. Players have enough power these days to move where they want when they want. Personally I don’t see the fact that he wants to wait until the summer as negatively as others. In this AGM report on Arsenal World (sadly our contributor couldn’t got this year – sorry Myles!) the boss admits the balance of the squad is wrong. He was planning around youth because he didn’t think there’d be much money available with the new stadium project dominating the books. A player like Thierry doesn’t become one of, if not the best players in the world without drive and ambition. There are lots of players who are as quick, who can hit the ball as well, but they lack the mentality which sets great players apart.
He wants to win things and he wants to see that for the final years of his career, and let’s be honest the next contract he signs will be his last ‘big’ one and those years will be when he wants to win lots of titles and European trophies, that he’s playing in a team capable of doing that. That’s something the manager has to sort out by getting out his chequebook and using it to bring in real quality into the squad. There’s also the draw of the new stadium. There’s the fantastic relationship he has with the fans. Yes, there’s talk of Barcelona but at this stage it’s speculation and peple are so quick to believe every negative press story but don’t give the same credence to anything positive.
Let’s go back a few years when Roy Keane was in exactly the same position at Manchester United. His contract was running down. There was talk of him going to Bayern Munich. I remember reading they were offering him £80,000 a week. Now, his contract didn’t have more than 18 months left. His contract had 6 months left. He let it run down until the January when he was entitled to talk to other clubs. I can’t ever remember anyone questioning Roy Keane’s committment to Manchester United. We all know he signed a new deal. Thierry has constantly declared his committment to Arsenal so why don’t people believe him?
I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll leave. I think the club, his relationship with Arsene Wenger, his relationship with the fans, his stature within the the Arsenal and the potential we’ll have if the manager makes the right signings will convince him to stay.
But, as the man himself said, he’s not going to talk about it until the end of the season and unless there’s some new information then neither am I. It’s already a much bigger issue than it should be in the press who are enjoying knocking us at every turn having lauded us as invincible not 12 months ago.
Safety has been busy at work and he’s got a new article about Thierry called 186. Also back from spending 4 months being kept prisoner by a female news reader the newly escaped Leopold Mendacious brings you Arsene Wenger – Trawlerman on the real ANR.
There you go then. Too much writing this early on a Saturday morning. Man City later and my team has its third league game of the season. Bring it on.
