Morning all. It seems the main story this morning is how Ronaldinho says he talks a lot with Thierry Henry. I wonder what they could possibly talk about. Dental programmes, no doubt. The Barcelona star says:
Henry’s a fantastic player, one of the best in the world. The door’s always open here for the greatest players. He is a player who has a lot of quality and he could go to any team in the world and make it better. I haven’t spoken to him this week but we have swapped a few text messages.
Great stuff. Of course Thierry is free to talk to who he wants, when he wants, but the Spanish papers are now full of Barcelona v Arsenal and the speculation regarding our captain is intensifying. One of the papers suggested yesterday that ‘Henry will announce his signing for Barcelona between May 18th and May 29th’, giving themselves a nice window of opportunity. Ronaldino – I like him. He’s a great player with a fantastic attitude towards the game but I think he’s a little out of order here. No doubt it’s probably quite well orchestrated but this kind of comment, just days before the final, is Mourinho-esque.
Is it unsettling for us as fans? Yes. Will it unsettle Henry? I doubt it because I’m sure he knows what he wants to do already. Is it unsettling for his teammates? Possibly. We have, with the greatest of respect to Thierry himself, more important things to concentrate on that whether he’s staying or going but of course there’s one person who could stop these stories with a quick signature.
I’m very up and down, for want of a better phrase, with the Henry situation. Sometimes I think he’ll stay, sometimes I think he’ll leave. I just think we need to hear something before the final to be really positive. It could also be last night’s beers giving me a more gloomy outlook! Who knows? The only thing I’ll say further, and it’s something I should have mentioned in the article the other day, is that Thierry needs to look carefully at what’s happened to Petit, Overmars, Anelka and even Vieira (who could find the league title he’s won stripped from the club he joined after the scandal in Italian football) after they left Arsenal in their relative primes. The grass certainly isn’t greener somewhere where it doesn’t rain as much. Profound, no?
Another one to decide his future after the final is Robert Pires. He has denied reports that he’s agreed and signed a 2 year deal with Villarreal. He says:
We’ve got the Final coming up and we’re going to focus on that and then afterwards I’ll decide whether I’m going to stay or leave. Arsenal’s offer was a one-year contract – the same thing they offered Dennis Bergkamp. But I’d like a firm offer of two years. It is said that I’d signed for Villarreal, but I can’t guarantee this is true.
Which is an interesting turn of phrase. Is it the same as ‘I can guarantee this is not true’? I’m not sure it is. Anyway, all eyes on the final from here on and contracts and futures can just wait.
There’s not much else Arsenal going on today, I’ll do a bit of a match preview for the final tomorrow. It’s FA Cup final day today too, seems a bit strange not being involved. We’ve had such a brilliant record in the cup in recent years. I’ll watch it nonetheless. Hope it’s a good game.
Finally, congratulations to Dublin Gooner and his appeal to raise money for the David Rocastle Trust. His target was £1,000 but because Arsebloggers are such wonderful people the total now stands at a whopping £1,383.02. Well done everyone, thank you all for your generosity and you know it’s going to a great cause.
Enjoy your Saturday, till tomorrow.
