Thierry Henry is already clear that next season he will come to play for Barcelona. The footballing figurehead of Arsenal knows that the moment has arrived to leave London to join a team that has just been proclaimed champions of Europe and plays high-carat football. At Arsenal, on the other hand, he knows the possibilities of lifting trophies are far less. – Diario Sport 19.05.06
I always refer to Arsenal as my home. I have been welcomed with open arms, the love I receive here – sometimes from non-Arsenal fans – is something I can’t forget about. I’ve never played in Spain and never will. This is my last contract. – Thierry Henry 19.05.06
So all the speculation can be put to rest. Thierry will sign a 4 year deal keeping him at the club until 2010. And you know what? Every single sports paper here in Spain can go and fuck themselves. For months they’ve been publishing stories fed to them by FC Barcelona about how inevitable it was that Thierry would join them. About how he’s bought a house here. About how he doesn’t rate his teammates. About how if Arsenal won the Champions League he would leave because he’s got nothing else to win there and if Arsenal lost he’d leave because it’s a sign of how poor we are. About how he’s signed pre-contract agreements.
They present fiction as fact and it has come back to bite them on the arse. Their assurances to their readers that it was little more than a formality that Henry would sign make them look stupid and ill-informed. No doubt they’ll spin the whole thing and make it look like they were right all along but he who laughs last, and all that. And we’re laughing last, Gooners.
Ludovic Giuly. Go fuck yourself. All season long we’ve had to listen to this no-mark 60 minute footballer telling us he knew what Henry was going to do. Ronaldinho, you can talk to Thierry as much as you like but you’ll never play with him and you’ll never be as good as him. And Barcelona’s management must be sick because they wanted Henry to replace Eto’o who in public they say they want to keep but privately they can’t wait to get rid of.
FC Barcelona blog – most of all I hope everyone now sees you for the piece of shit, Google ad snatching, ill-informed, sourceless, badly written load of muppety bollocks that you are. No links from me as you crop up on the Arsenal Newsnow feed like sores on a leper. Get fucked.
Maybe it’s small minded of me to crow about this but you haven’t lived here since this has been going on. You haven’t had to put up with the lads you play football with proclaiming that Henry would come to Barcelona. It’s been frustrating. Obviously I am delighted for Arsenal that he’s staying because it means we keep the best player in the world but as well as that I’m delighted because I can chuck it back in their faces a bit. On Wednesday outside Kitty O’Shea’s we saw a young Barcelona fan walk past with a Barcelona shirt with ‘Henry 14’ on the back. Money well spent, you little twat.
Anyway, gloating over it’s just fantastic news for everyone. Arsene Wenger said:
I believe this season has created a special bond inside the team and there is much more to come. Wednesday night reinforced that feeling among the players and if you want to continue that progression it would rely on Thierry’s decision. It is basically an insurance for the future.
While I liked this quote from Thierry:
In the last four or five months I have looked at the performances of kids like Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Eboue, Mathieu Flamini and Abou Diaby. I understand that people look to me to show them the way, but at the same time I look to the young kids to help me on the pitch. There is huge potential there and I want to be a part of that.
And that’s the thing, there is huge potential. We can all see it and it will be easier to realise that with Henry at the club. I know some people got a little frustrated by how long the situation dragged on but there isn’t an Arsenal fan alive who won’t have been delighted by the news. Even players and pundits with loyalties to other teams are happy to see him stay.
There was the danger of losing a lot of experience this summer. We know Dennis is going and Pires is still more than likely to leave while Sol Campbell’s future is still very much a grey area. The papers talk a lot about Ashley Cole definitely moving but maybe Henry staying will change that. From what I’m told he’s much more likely to stay with the club than leave at this moment in time and a fit and right in the head Ashley Cole makes us a stronger team.
Arsene said yesterday he wants to add one or two players of ‘great calibre’ to the team this summer. As usual that remark will be pored over by all Arsenal fans. Like many of you I think we need more than one or two but as I’ve said time and time again what Arsene says about transfers and what he does about transfers are very often two different things.
One thing is for sure though – having Thierry Henry at the club will help us attract the quality and the experience that we need to compliment the potential of the young players.
And there you go. The players will head off the World Cup and it’s now officially off-season. This means I have to try and produce an Arsenal blog every day without very much Arsenal news. Here’s hoping for plenty of transfer speculation, if not I’ll have to get creative and Christ knows where that will take us. Thanks for being here all season long though. It’s been quite a ride.
Have a nice weekend, Arsefans.
