I still love Thierry Henry 28 May, 2009

Last night’s Champions League final reminded me how much I love Thierry Henry. Watching it I realized all I really wanted was Titi to do well, get that medal he deserves and maybe a goal if he was lucky. Well he did get that medal beating Man United 2-0 in a fantastic display by Barcelona.

They really are deserved winners and without a doubt the best team in the world. Man United are a great side but they were outclassed by Barcelona. We did well to make it to the semi finals but if we had made it through to Rome we could’ve been ripped apart. Wenger said recently how close we are to being a great side but last night Barcelona proved to all Arsenal fans watching just the kind of football we try to play and how it is done extremely well. We are some way off but that has to be the aim.

In Henry’s post-match interview he talks about how the 2006 final still hurts but it so happy to have won the medal. He can now add it to an incredible list of achievements – The Ligue 1 title, the French Cup, 2 Premier League titles, 2 FA Cups, the La Liga title, the Spanish Cup, the World Cup, the European Championship and of course now the Champions League trophy. It must be one of the best medal hauls by any one player and he can now retire a happy man. There’s nothing really left for him to win; the Carling Cup? Ha, no.

It’s such a shame he never managed to be named FIFA Player of the Year but he was unlucky to come up against Zidane, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. In my mind, he was at one point the best player in the world and I am grateful that I got to watch him play regularly at Highbury. I don’t care if it wasn’t made official, I know that he was the best. He will forever be in my heart and in those of many other Gooners – just as Arsenal remains a true love of his.

Would I take him back? Yeah I would, if not just for sentimental reasons he does seem to have improved since his first year at Barca and I think he deserves to retire at Arsenal. Never going to happen but would be nice.

Wenger has been talking about his proudest product and is really happy for him to have won the trophy he so badly wanted. However Arsene has admitted that Thierry might’ve been that extra bit we needed to win the title in 2008 when we came so close. He might be right you know.

However, last night’s win for Henry means that the experiment to leave Arsenal in order to win trophies has worked. Arsene has hit back at this saying Henry got special dispensation to leave as he had been with the club for many years and he could not stand in the way of his last chance for a move. It’s perfectly understandable, he didn’t leave because he’d had enough of Arsenal or anything but he wanted to try other things while he still could. Wenger has said that it would be wrong for some of the current players to leave after seeing Henry win because they are still so young and have not been at Arsenal long enough. They still have time to play and work towards earning silverware here.

Last night I couldn’t help but think about Cesc Fabregas. He would’ve no doubt been watching somewhere or even in Rome supporting his boyhood team. I do hope that he doesn’t get any ideas and listens to what Arsene has been saying today about the future of this young side.

In other news Theo Walcott and Kieran Gibbs have been included in the England U21 squad for this summer’s European Championships. It means they aren’t going to get much of a rest this summer but at least we’ll have something to watch until July when pre-season starts. We’ll bring you more on this when we get closer the competition.

And finally it looks like we’re set to sign the Cheltenham 15-year-old Jamie Edge. I don’t think it’s been fully completed yet but looks close. Obviously another one for the youth team but it’s another one to add to the likes of Luke Freeman, Jack Wilshere, Fran Merida etc. of this exciting possible new generation of players.

Right well that’s it for today. Thanks for reading and I’ll speak to you soon.