So there was more on the Henry – Wenger situation yesterday as you’d imagine. Thierry spoke about his side of things, which I’ll come back to, and the manager insisted things were fine between him and his captain, saying:
Of course I am aware of stories circulating in the media about our meeting last Friday. I just feel that it’s important to reiterate that there is no problem between myself and Thierry, in fact, we have always had a strong relationship and that remains the case. I wanted to clear this up and end any further speculation.
Naturally at the first whiff of blood the sharks came circling. If you read John Cross in the Mirror, and I advise you to take everything he says about Arsenal with a hefty pinch of salt, Henry was off to Barcelona and was a power-mad egomaniac determined to take control of the French national team. One particularly cowardly English based member of the French squad couldn’t wait to stick his boot in saying all sorts of things about Thierry.
Henry responded though, saying:
To claim that I wanted the power – no. To say that I wanted to play in a 4-5-1 – no. Everyone that knows me knows that I prefer to play alongside a team-mate. Quite simply, it is true that I can be a pig! It is not a lie to say that. Sometimes, I feel that I am in the right even when I am wrong.
A trait he probably shares with most of us. Shock horror. Imagine a footballer, especially one of the best ones in the world, feeling like he’s right most of the time. What sets him apart is admitting it. Many of the prima donnas wouldn’t. He went on to rule out any kind of move and insisted he was focussed on getting back to full fitness and playing for Arsenal after playing nearly 60 games this calendar year. Some reports have said he’ll be out for 6 weeks but I suspect he’ll be back quite a bit sooner than that. For now though we just need to concentrate on the players we have and the matches we have in front of us.
Man of Saturday’s match Emmanuel Adebayor explains why he went over to celebrate with the Henry after he scored. He explains:
Before the game he came in the dressing room telling me what to do and what not to do. He told me if I had the ball with the just the goalkeeper in front of you he will never go down and will just stay there before you. That means you have to take your time, be calm and the ball will go in. [Robinson] is one of the fattest goalkeepers in England. In the time it takes him to propel his massive bulk to the ground you could build a new set of pyramids. So I just waited and thankfully I saw a tiny gap because that enormous cunt filled up most of the goal.
After rumours of an £8m bid from Lyon in the Danish press yesterday there’s a further rumour than AC Milan could be preparing a £6m bid for Nicklas Bendtner. He’s doing very well for Birmingham this season but if someone was to offer you £6-£8m for an 18 year striker you’d have to seriously consider it. I think he’ll come back to us and extend his contract and become part of the first team squad next season though.
Now, that to your left looks like a regular red and white Arsenal scarf, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. It’s 100% cashmere made by ancient cashmere masters in the Scottish highlands. They’re produced by a new website called Savile Rogue and because Arseblog is quite simply the best blog ever and because they’re top blokes they’ve given me three of them to give away to you. Splendid.
All you have to do is answer the following question. Before being simply ‘Arsenal’ the club had a different name. Was it, a) Woolly Arsenal – b) The Arsenal – c) Woolwich Arsenal.
Answers to [email protected] and the RNG will do its thing on Thursday morning.
And that’s about it. The lads will be off to Portugal today, if you’re travelling have a safe trip, and there’ll be a full preview of the Porto game tomorrow.
Don’t forget if you have any comments or questions for the Arsecast on Friday (which is at number 13 in the iTunes store for sports podcasts – ahead of the official Arsenal one but still behind the Man United one, booooooo) click the Arsecast link on the right to find email addresses and funky audio message leaver info thingimajig.
Right, till tomorrow.
