Henry, Gone. 23 June, 2007

Well I suppose it was going to happen, it wasn’t out of the blue but when I got a phone call yesterday afternoon saying Henry had gone to Barca for 16 million I still couldn’t believe it. The news hit me hard and I didn’t know what to think. I checked out to see if he was having me on but I knew this was real. The greatest player to ever play for this club has gone, even after saying he love’s this club and wants to end his career here.

Possibly one of the best strikers to have ever played the game, I just feel lucky that he was an Arsenal player. I will never forget him. I will always love Thierry Henry. Despite what he’s said about never playing in Spain and he would be Arsenal forever. I do feel like a bit of an idiot for believing him and I had no doubt in my mind that he would be staying. You have to respect his decision though. If you look at it not as a Gooner and think about Henry’s age, fitness, hunger for a Champions League medal and the state of Arsenal at the moment, it’s probably a good decision for him.

As much as I hate to say it, I wish him the very best of luck at FC Barcelona. To be honest, I don’t think he’s going to do that well there. It’s obvious he’s not the player he once was and he’s very injury prone at the moment. We’ll see what happens but I hope he’s happy there but I hope he never forgets Arsenal and the millions of Arsenal fans he’s touched.

So he’s gone now. We must move on. If there’s anything good about this it’s that he made his mind u and we got a deal done as quickly as possible. We now have some time to find a replacement, and I mean it. We must replace him. I can see Wenger just saying we don’t need to replace him, we have the youngsters. That’s bollocks, we need someone. We now have lost Henry, Aliadiere, Reyes will go and don’t forget Baptista’s loan is up. We have Van Persie and Adebayor, they are good but we need another player of probably their quality to add to the strike force. If Wenger tells us that Bendtner is that man then I will be fucking livid.

I do worry about us now. From Henry’s quotes coming out today he’s saying a main factor is that Wenger won’t extend his contract after next season. So he’s off, you can’t help but think Fabregas will pack his bags too. If you think of the squad, I think it’s quite obvious which players would quite happily fuck off. Gallas is one name I think of, Bendtner another. I do hope the squad put their faith in the club, commit to it and help turn this team in the right direction. We have an incredible youth set-up, but that’s not going to be any good if players decide they want to leave because Arsenal isn’t a top Premiership side anymore. We need a kick up the arse. We need to get stuck in. We know we can perform without Titi now we have to prove it. Let the critics talk, and show them what we can do. If we’re to do this I think Kolo Toure is definitely the best man for the captain. I’m quite sure it’ll just get passed on to Gilberto but I think it should be Kolo. No doubt. I hope Arsene has a think about it rather than just automatically giving the armband to Gilberto.

I’m going wrap this up but because I will go on forever rambling about rubbish. Lastly I’d just like to mention the price tag. Nothing official’s come out of Arsenal yet but it seems like it’s ₤16m. Apparently we could’ve got nearer ₤30m last season and that was with one year left on his contract. I think ₤16m is ridiculous. Fair enough he’s getting old, and yes I know I’ve said he’s on the decline but still. I think ₤20m would’ve been more like it but oh well.

Just finally, one man who might be brought in is Ryan Babel. He says he hasn’t been approached though but he does admire the club. More on that to come I hope.

Right see you later. I’m just about to go and do something very hard and remove Thierry Henry from the squad page. Thanks for reading.