Arsenal and Arsene made a big mistake with Henry
This is a rant, and a step away from how I usually talk on this site, so take it with a grain of salt
I have the utmost respect for Arsene Wenger. Guys like him are legends - you end of talking about them for decades afterwards.
But there are times that we forget that managers are human - that they can big mistakes.
Alex Ferguson, one of the most successful managers in English football, in the summer of 2005, made a grave mistake.
There was some speculation surrounding Ruud van Nistelrooy and a price of 20-25m was being talked about. I remember telling Hasan then that SAF would not sell now, but that he should, to cash in on RVN because he had peaked and while he’d still be good, he won’t command the same transfer value again. There was also talk of RVN asking to move on but SAF refusing the move - not sure how much truth there is in that.
Don’t get me wrong - I still want RVN back at Old Trafford - but in terms of transfer strategy, if SAF was ever going to sell Ruud, summer 2005 was the time. Of course, he didn’t, and United gave him away to Real Madrid for 10-11m - a loss of at least 10m from the previous season.
Business and idealism are different - in ideal conditions Beckham and RVN would still be at Manchester United. The reality is that both were kicked out at a cut price.
Ideally, Vieira and Henry and Pires would have wanted to finish their careers with Arsenal. The reality is that Arsenal lost money on Vieira, let Pires go on a free and will lose money on Henry (yes, lose money on Vieira and Henry, because if both had been sold an year earlier Arsenal would have received an additional 10M+ for each of them).
Last summer, Thierry Henry was the toast of Europe and Barcelona were after him like crazy. He would have commanded a fee of at least 30m, and it was time to sell. TH was tempted but Arsenal refused, Arsene begged him to stay and Henry, in an emotional fit, stayed.
And today we read - from the Times and from ANR and Arseblog, that Henry is odds on to go to Barcelona for a fee of 15-20m.
If Wenger can squeeze 20m out of Barcelona, he will make Arsenal fans very happy.
What a turnaround from last summer, when everyone was begging him to stay. The media has played their role, so have Barcelona and so has Henry.
And this isn’t the first time Wenger or Arsenal have made this mistake - Vieira to Madrid in 2004 would have netted the club another 20-30m, but they begged again and another season went by with the player not fully focused on his game.
Superstars tend to need new challenges - it’s nothing personal, but very few big names can stay at the same club for a long period of time. Ballack, IMO, didnt go to Chelsea for the money - he went for the challenge. Ditto for Sheva. Ditto for Vieira leaving Arsenal, and Henry poised to.
There is a time to hold on to your star players - when they are young and have their best years ahead of them.
But when they have peaked - like Vieira did for Arsenal in 2004 and Henry did for Arsenal in 2006 - it’s time to say goodbye.
Thing is, history and fans will blame the players, when it’s the club and the manager who’ve cost the club in transfer fees and wasted seasons.
Oh, and before you want to crucify me, go back to last summer and read the second article I wrote on soccerlens.com - about why Henry should have been sold last summer.
So when Henry single handedly took us to the final of the champions league and finished top scorer in 2006, you had already predicted that he was ‘past his peak’ and ’should have been sold’? Riiiiiiiight.
Actually David Dein said last season that arsenal received 2 offers of 50 million for Henry. He said that live at the Henry press conference when he signed the 4 year deal. That being said, Henry will not be sold for less than 30 million now at a minimum, so if barca cannot come up with that money, then they stand no chance of getting him.
Last summer Henry only had one year left on his contract, there would have been no way that Arsene could have got £30M out of Barcelona for him. Instead we probably would have been looking at £10-15M.
But with a long term contract at the moment Henry is in a less powerful position, the fee now would probably be around £20M. So I don’t think your argument that by holding onto Henry for another year Arsene has lost us money holds true, infact the opposite is more likely, and we’ll probably get more cash this summer than we ever could have last year.
You are wrong as last year henry had only ear left on his contract and was never going to be sold for $30m, now he has three years left so we are in a much stronger position. Equally wenger wasn’t to know henry would be useless and injured all year.
Fair point, i can understand where your coming from, i agree 55/45. in two minds at the moment
You are overlooking the fact that Henry had one year left on his contract in May 06 - consequently, his value was about £10m.
Dein can say what he wants - it sounds good for AFC fans that he turned down two £50m bids.
Utter tripe. Don’t even believe it. The reality is that a player with one year on his contract goes for a much lower price.
So by signing this guy to four more years, AFC can hold out for £20m and get rid of a shit captain.
Let me remind you that last summer, henry had a buyout clause and he could have walked away for a cutprice of ~14M. He signed a 3 year deal and so now Arsenal can dictate the transfer value. Know your stats!
“Arsene begged him to stay and Henry, in an emotional fit, stayed”
thats such a ludicrous assertion. Henry stayed because of the whole CL final aftermath and the need for the club to have a star player leading the line at the emirates. I do think Henry would have walked away had arsenal held on in paris…”mission accomplished”.
If Henry goes he will go at the going rate which to a foriegn club may well be 15 to 20 million, should however the rumours about the Liverpool betting scene have credence the figure would be relative to the current fees in the EPL i.e Bent 17 mill, therefor your 30 mill might be more accurate.
Forget the money aspect of the deal, the much more important issue is the immeasurable damage having a discontent and often ill motivated player has on the team as a whole.
It disrupts morale and the harmony of the team. I have never considered Henry a team player (despite his assists), as for me Henry has always played for himself. It was never about Arsenal winning or sacrificing for the team, it was always about being no. 1.
To me it is a similar feeling to having a beautiful spouse, but always having to look over ones back to check if things are okay. In the long run one is happier and more succesful with a faithful and committed spouse.
Not a bad word on TH’s ability as a player though. He has always been head and shoulders above the rest. But he should absolutely never have been made captain! Never!
To believe that Arsenal have to make signings to keep a player happy, it beyond absurd.
I am a supporter of Arsenal Football Club, not the Thierry Henry showroom.
And I remember the Henry faithful bashing the reports of last week suggesting we were to take E’Too plus 17 mill. for Henry. I bet you are not calling it such a bad deal now.
Still, we will be just fine. Now only to get rid of Freddie!
Gus J.
I guess you also think that a bell rings every day on the stock exchange to tell people that the shares have reached their highest point?
I do not completely agree with your assessment. Henry costed Arsenal £11m 8yrs ago and Viera Costed about £4m 10yrs ago. Both of them were instrumental in Arsenal successes for the past 10yrs. If you take away the depriciation affect from their Original costs, you will see that Arenal made £13million profit on Vieri and any amount that will be made from “imminent” sale of Henry will be all profit.
We probably overlook the human side to football. A football side spends inordinate amounts of time together, and managers (presumably) develop familial relationships with their players. To sell a Vieira, Henry, Keane, Beckham… that’s akin to divorcing your wife or disowning your kid. I remember how Vieira’s account of his transfer revealed a deep sense of hurt at the rejection, at the realisation that despite all their years together, it was just a business arrangement. I can accept Wenger dithering over these transfers, because that level of indecision shows how much he really cares for his players.
I don’t disagree with too much of this except where Arsenal begged Vieira to stay. They very much wanted Vieira to go to Real for £25mn but it was Vieira at the 11th hour who insisted he didn’t want to go. Unfortunately it was far too late to do anything about it by the time the decision came. They had to wait another year to ship him out at half the price.
You may or may not be right about Henry but on the other hand moving to a new stadium which at the time they couldn’t be absolutely sure of filling without their star player would also have been a difficult financial conundrum. Now it is an easier decision to take.
How easy it is to be wise after the event - there have been so many things which have happened in the last year that have radically changed the situation.
If we had let him go last year for mega bucks would we have done any better? Would we have been able to get a quality replacement? Would we have been ridiculed and pilloried for disposing of our most valuable asset? I suggest the answers are NO, NO and a resounding YES respectively.
Deal with realities not what if’s - we have had several wonderful seasons from Thierry and he will be greatly missed - he has been outstanding value for money. I will miss him greatly but if he wants to go he should and let the club move on. I am sure he won’t be released until a suitable replacement is found.
Ahmed. A few points here apart from the relevant issues of the contract at the time.
Arsenal have gotten the best out of Henry. He was no body before he came and he will never be as good when he leaves. Add to that the fact that we will deffinately get more money now than what was paid for him, it is no doubt damn good business.
The same applies to Vieira!! Damn good business.
I would love to see Henry stay for one more year but the reality is he wants to go by the look of things. Last year their was no way anybody could have predicted the injury bound season he would have. So to say what you said above makes no sense. For the games that he did play, Henry still had the best goal by game ratio, better than Drogba by miles. Barcelona will bend to our rules this time, if they want him they must pay!
At least one fifty million bid was from Abramavich, when he first took over - Dein’s famous “the Russians have parked their tanks on our lawn and are firing fifty pound notes” quote. He wasn’t talking about last summer. I think Henry has behaved like a sulky teenager this summer, and has soured a lot of our feelings for him. But talk of “losing money” on him is absurd. We payed nine million quid for the best player in our history, got six or seven fantastic seasons out of him, and will sell him on for twice what we paid, when there’s no guarantee that he’ll ever get back to the level he was. That’ll do me.
This would be a good article if managers could actually predict when a player has peaked. Should Barca have sold Ronaldinhio last year? Should Milan sell Kaka this year? Who knows?
Only a fool would have sold Henry last year. At 28, he’d just had the best season of his life, which followed the season before, when he’d also just had the season of his life and so on……..
Can Ronaldo get better? Or should AF sell him now when his trnsfer value may be at it’s peak?
A football managers job is very complex, and juding when a player will begin his decline an unknown. If Wenger and Arsenal had let Henry go atfer the season he had last year they would, rightly, have been accused of being unambitious. The best teams need to hang on to their best players. Managers are there to make the calls as they see fit, and Wenger has been one of the best.
Contract issue is spot on thus highlighting the lack of knowledge/research of the author.
It is simple, if Henry goes it will be because we chose to sell him. End of story. If we can persuade eto’o who is 4 years younger to join i’d be happy even with a straight swap.
There are going to be so many gossip following websites that are going to be eating a lot of humble pie when Thierry is still with Arsenalnext season.
Oh and I forgot to say that I don’t believe Henry is past his best. We should keep him.
I firmly believe that the news Henry is finally to be given the green light to play for Barcelona represents a revolutionary shift in the fortunes for AFC. I’ve been actively witnessing Henry’s demise over the past two seasons, and while I can understand that an achilles injury has somewhat neutralized one of his greatest weapons-his pace-I do believe his pyschological influence is more a burden than a benefit to his team. This influence has been exacerbated by the fact he was made club captain, which for all his genius, has made Henry’s presence an increasingly damaging one.
As an Arsenal fanatic, one that derived the greatest sense of pleasure (beyond knocking one out) from seeing Henry destroy defences with such nonchalants, this realization was difficult for me to swallow, equalling, if not surpassing, the level of dissolution I felt after finding out that I could actually respect Sir Alex Ferguson and his cutthroat approach to the way he interacts with his squad.
As demonstrated consistently throughout history, there is no greater winning element in football than a strong sense of teamwork. This has been all but destroyed by Henry, whose incessant self-indulgence has prevented such a winning combination-one that is vital for a club that plays the passing game as we do-from being formed.
Granted, we should have taken one the two £50m offers (recieved by the since departed David Dein) that was lodged last year, for even then it was clear that these elements to Henry’s game was being utterly destructive throughout the team; even if this meant him going to Chelsea. Nontheless, for all its obvious economic benefit, this business was prevented by a combination of stubborness and a clear lack of comunication, two factors that would continue to hinder the management of AFC throughout the following season.
Alas, it would now appear that Wenger has seen the light. Henry’s legendary status will remain so, and there is no doubt, despite his growing physical shortcomings, that he will form a formidable partnership with Messi and Ronaldinho. While a bidding war could ensue (in which case he may end up somewhere else, i.e. Milan), there is no doubt that Gilberto Silva will lead out Arsenal at the Emirates next year, offering a complete contrast in style, evidently for the better, to the departing Arsenal legend.
ps…sorry for the overblown, grandiose long-windedness.
It looks like the other posts have achieved a much more concise job of saying the same thing.
Sorry man, dont agree. No way. As for Viera and Pires, a big factor that played a part in both of them leaving was Wenger’s one year contract for senior players. Plus Pires openly said that he felt cheated when he was substituted in the CL final(personally, that was Wenger’s big mistake, he should have taken out the unfit Ljunberg and played Pires) and Viera also said that he was shocked at the reaction at Arsenal when he told them that he was considering Juventus,maybe he expected some benefits, I dont know. I’m not supporting my club blindly, I’d blame Wenger for the loss of Viera and Pires but not fot the reasons you mentioned. As for Henry, it is obvious that he’s considering leaving, but Barca is not the paradise that Ronaldinho describes it to be(eto’s outburst against Rijkaard?) and he is doubtful. Personally i hope he makes up his mind soon……………
More speculative bollox. Get a life and stop spending so much time writing this drivel.
A season before and Arsenal could have beaten the world transfer fee record for Henry with Chelsea reportedly ready to throw 60million quid their way. And Vieira, both Man Utd and Real were ready to offer in excess of 25M. But then again, before the turn of the millenium Arsenal was always a selling club. Remember Overmars and Anelka, high profile transfers. It is probably just that now that they have gotten pretty strong and stable financially, it is time to keeps their best stars. Only in Henry, Vieira and Arsenal’s case, it should be wise to get top dollar for them, and rebuild from scratch seeing how things have gone the past few seasons. Juventus tops the rest at knowing how to get the best price for players and when Real Madrid wanted Zidane, they knew how to do sound business.
The contract points are valid - I WILL discuss them later, but in short I think that it was in Arsene Wenger’s hands whether Henry signed a new contract or not (he did get him to sign, didn’t he?). Also, on one hand you tell me of Henry’s greatness and the other say that he would have gone for 15M? Henry would have fetched 30M easily, 1 year or 5 years on his contract. He was worth that much last season. I’d put the number at 40M if it hadn’t been one year left in his contract.
As for the predictions bit - try reading to the end of the article - I wrote about this last summer, not jumping on this now.
You guys might think that I dislike Arsenal or Henry - that’s not the motivation behind this. I respect Arsenal and I quite like Henry. I’m trying to point out what I think was a mistake made by Wenger.
Ronaldinho has one more big year in him at Barcelona, I think. Kaka has several big years ahead of him.
Henry was turning 29 in August 2006 - as a striker his best years would be behind him, he was coming off a grueling season and he was going to play in the World Cup - there was every reason to expect that his performances would have dropped this season.
And it’s also interesting to see the fans, including Arseblogger, turn on Henry now that he’s had one off-color year. Fickle football fans, or does time just change us more than we think it does? Maybe it changes the players as well.
Overall though, the ‘fans turning on Henry’ is far more interesting than the fact that Henry should have been sold off last season.
Arsenal will never get £30mil for Henry. I also heard some crazy Gooners predicting a swap involving Eto’o + £17mil in exchange for Henry ?!! Nutters.
I think he needs a new challenge though, Barca would certainly be that.
Wenger knows what he’s doing. He’s never let us down before. He won’t sell Henry unless he has someone else in the pipeline. Gunners fans have just got to trust him!
We’ll be fine, no need to worry. Liverpool will wast their money on crap, Chelsea will buy players they can’t play anyway, and United are a one man team!
The young’ns will be better, and Van Persie will be player of the year like he would have been last season!
Just Watch!!!
It deffo wasn’t a big mistake with Henry. If we were to sell him we’d have no replacement. He’s been nuturing the youngsters this year such as Rvp, Walcott and Adebayor. Henry is so much important than anyone would knows.
Its not all about Money either. I couldn’t care less how much money we would have if we’d sold Pires, Vieira and Henry earlyer. You wouldn’t see the Arsenal we see today if we let them leave earlyer. Cesc wouldn’t ave been here and a whole load of other players.
We couldn’t let our best player go either. We were opening a new stadium if you don’t remember.
mate, hindsight’s a beautiful thing, ain’t it? Vieira’s heart wasn’t in it after the u-turn before 04/05 season, and Pires thought he was bigger than the club to warrant a longer contract for a 30+ player. Don’t get me wrong, both were immense for the club, Gunners’ legends forever.
Good luck to Tel if he goes, but it seems to me that Arsene is forcing those sly b4stards at Barca to step up to the crease and deal with consequences of their underhanded overtures. If Arsene has told Barca a superstar for a superstar, good on him; it’s a f*** sight more honest than tehy’ve been, egging their puppets/players/press on to say what a dream it would be for Henry to play for them.
It could be Tel believing his own myth of engima, but saying that he’s with AFC ”for now” is hardly a statement of loyalty. At the moment, I’m feeling really jaded by all this crap, so roll on 31 August or whenever. We’ve had to put up with one poxy rumour after another for the last ten or so years. If he goes, he goes. I’ll deal with it, just like all Gooners will. We may not be happy about it, but we’ll cope.
Given the current predictament of Le Arse (i.e. rooted firmly in fourth place of the EPL Big Four), is it realistic for them to even contemplate selling their talisman player. If they were mad enough to do so, who pray tell would put bums on seats in their spanking new stadia? Theo-farking-Walcott?
Laugh, don’t make me…
I on’t see how you can say Arsenal were in a stronger position then… he had a year left on his contract was increasingly disillusioned and was nowhere near his best.
“Rooted firmly in fourth place”? Hardly; we finished level on points with Liverpool, who squeaked into 3rd with a marginally better goal difference.
If Henry is sold then an experienced replacement will be signed, albeit not a player of the same calibre. Another top-four finish looks eminently achievable to me.
Henry’s presence isn’t needed to fill the stadium, just a competitive team and good football. I’m a season ticket holder and I don’t go to watch the Thierry Henry Show, I go to support Arsenal Football Club.
You are factually wrong, Henry would have gone cheap last year as he had one year left on his contract. barcelona offered 10-15m last year, they will get greater value this year.
If Arsenal could pull off a swap deal with Henry for Eto’o like what they did with Cole and Gallas they would get the better end of the deal.
“rooted firmly in the fourth place of the EPL big four”! who is this retard tony? Maybe thats why only one out of those 4 teams could beat us. If Henry wants to go, he should, but they wont let him go cheap.
Yes, you are so right. Arsene Wenger has a long list of errors in the transfer market: Toure(500k), Fabregas(500k), Anelka(250k - sold for 23 million), Henry(10 million - could sell for 20?), Vieira (3 million sold for 13), Petit(3 million sold for 10). Overmars(4 million sold for 20)
I think he should be sacked, also your point about Henry’s contract: If Henry didnt want to sign it he wouldnt have. Simple as that!
I would say Alex Ferguson is a briliant manager, and you are lucky to have him at Utd. But, his transfer dealings are no where near as astute as Wengers.
would not have been able to command any different a fee last year as he only had a year left on his contract. If arsenal sell Titi they’re in a much greater negotiating position + the fact he’s been heavily rested this year so, when analysed, it’d bump his price up.
I do think that if he’s to go, let him go. Persinally I feel like he should and money should be there to complement because even AW is a very good economist who hardly uses money………for better use.
Henry nolonger has a heart for Arsenal but he only feels ashamed waiting, to say it’s Arsene & may be the C/M that sold him not he himself as if, if he was 2 say no, they would not understand.
Like a lot of them have already pointed out:
1. Henry couldn’t have possibly fetched Arsenal 30 mills because he had a year left in his contract
2. A swap deal is what looks likely at the moment. Not an outright sale.
funny how 30m was the figure being bandied about for Henry last summer but now everyone’s rubbishing it.
Also funny how the media’s treatment of Arsenal made him God and now an year later Arsenal fans are ready to sacrifice him.
By the way, Eto’o coming to Arsenal will be a fantastic coup for Wenger, no doubt about it. Will he, though? I don’t know, I thought he wanted to play ‘with’ Henry
Sacrifice no. We just don’t see the need of fighting a lossing battle. One season yes but not this season. We all want him to stay like we did want him last year but right now it seems like he’s playing games with us now with say he’s flattered by Milan.
I don’t think Barcelona are that stupid to let Eto’o go the opposite way. Henry is getting older. EEto’o is in his prime.
Everybody are talking about if Henry leaves us that there is possibility Eto’ would join Arsenal.
Can’t see that happening because Eto’ “is in love with Henry”, same goes to Xavi…
So who we have,
Van Persie-great, future
Adebayor-nothing more than 3rd striker
Then we need another class signing
Torres- great player, but I’m not sure that he can net more that 15 goals in season, not 1st class goalscorer
Babel-please, we want trophies now, not in 3-4 years
Any suggestions who would replace Henry, or Wenger is planing to do the same mistake like he did with Viera
Personally, I’m not thinking much about “Henry situation” that much like I did last year. What happens,happens…
But it would be great loss for Premier League to lose another great player. And Spain gets one more world class player, like usually….
One more thing
Wenger is recently talking to fans that we should not lose faith.
Wouldn’t selling Henry be step backwards?
Wenger should make one big transfer. To show the fans ambition and also showing Henry, Gallas some ambition.
this isn’t championship manager mate. having experience is a huge asset in real life, one which arsenal need more than any other team.
patrick vieira past his best? he’s still immense and i’d give my left nut to have him back at arsenal.
and henry is the greatest footballer in the world. when he’s fit again you’ll all suddenly remember just how good he is.
and gooner4ever, adebayor is gonna be enormous.
strong, quick, great leap. but poor first touch and finishing. remind you of anyone? maybe the guy who single handedly kept chelsea in the title race?
arsenal should never sell henry he is one of the best in the world and a team like arsenal will never sign a good anoth player to replace him.As for the obscene comment that henry only palys for himself then why didnt he go to barcalona who are a far better team than arsenal and actually have a chance of winning the league where arsenal have none if it was all about personal glory he would have left
no matter if 50m, 30m, 20m, or even 15mil Henry have to go.
Arsenal must learn to not so depending on him. Obviously the Gunners can do way much better if they not rely on him so much.
I laugh at how BLIND you all are…Henry’s antics are DESTROYING the arsenal way. He quite simply has to go. Try watching a game over the last couple of seasons (inc the year he got to us the CL final) and see how many moves break down/slack passes were given away because of Henry’s frequent self-indulgence on the pitch. Adios.
Ahmed, I myself pointed out to many that Vieira should have been sold earlier and can agree with the principle that there is an optimum time to sell players from a financial perspective, but in calculating that optimum time (or more accuratly estimating it) you need to take two other very important factors into account.
The simplest way to make my point is like this … Beckham was sold too early, but the reason had little to do with how much we actually got for him. The missing factors are 1) how much he is paid, and 2) how much his presents in the team affects club income.
Given the marketing income we would have got if we held on to David it is arguable that we should have held on to him. That said if we had held on to him we probably wouldn’t have purchased Ronaldo, and the club would not only lose out on Ronaldo’s value increase (currently around £30 million), but also in an trophies he brings us (Ronaldo probably earned us the Premiership this season which equates to more income).
Another missing factor is the possibility that owning one player makes attracting others easier. Nani has just joined us and a considerable influence on us getting him might well of been Ronaldos presence in the team. Good players in your squad make it easier to buy other good players.
I agree with you 100% and have been saying this since 2005, its time.
I believe that Wenger, if he is discussing transfers with Barcelona, is talking about the transfer of Eto to Arsenal and not the sale of Henry to Barcelona. If this is Wenger’s last season at Arsenal, I don’t beleive he will sell Henry but to get the strongest team money can buy for the coming season so that he will be in an advantageous position in his coming negotiations with Arsenal.
Howvere I certainly believe that we need a very good central defender, Gallas for me is suspect.
spot on, i think.
big players do need challenges, and how many stars stay at a club their whole career if they haven’t come through the youth system? it’s unfair for everyone to say henry had a poor season though, he didn’t even manage 30 games but still scored 12 goals…
he deserves to be at a club that can realsitically challenge for both the league and the CL, and arsenal’s not that at the moment. personally not sure he’d work too well with messi and ronaldinho, they all seem to have a habit of drifting wide so it could leaves holes up front. of course, it could work fantastically so fair play.
personally, i hope he goes to milan (if they keep kaka), but i doubt it.
as a point though, when do you think we should sell ronaldo?
Ahmed, you seem to get most of your details from the redtops. Where did Barca or Arsenal ever say that 30m was the figure last year? You don’t know and neither do I, so no point specualting.
Secondly, whilst some fans may have turned on Henry, that’s life. You’re only as good as your last season, and if he stays aand has a blinder next season, well you know the rest………. It would be the same for pretty much any player at any club.
Lastly, you say Kaka has many years ahead of him and Ronaldiniho has one more. But what if………..oh yes we don’t know. Kaka may be in his mid twenties, but is that a guarnatee that he hasn’t peaked? As I said this may be the season of his life, we don’t know.
On your premise:
Chelsea should sell Drogba
Man U should sell Scholes
Milan should sell, well, pretty much everyone…..etc
The top teams in the world are there because they don’t sell their best players. No one knows if Henry is in decline because no one saw a fully fit Henry last year.
Managers make these decisions and live or die by them. What signal would it send out to players and fans if you’re best players asre constantly sold on the basis that you may not get as much for them next year. Football is about winning trophies, and to do that you need the best players. To sell you best players on a hunch is foolish. AW has never let Arsenal down, regradless of what you may think, and I for one trust him to do right again.
There are some points I agree with but your figures aren’t one. Firstly wenger would not have made much more on Viera had he sold him a year earlier. 20mil rather than 14 maybe? That’s a 6mil difference. Not much in the scheme of things. He wanted to keep Viera for another season whilst he bled in Cesc, very sensible. The fact that he didn’t play that much wasn’t a problem. He was an established figure so when he was out injured and the new kid got his chance no-one worried. AW got a bargain for Viera considering his injury problems since.
AW will also make more on Thierry this Summer than last. Last year TH had 1 year left on his contract and had he wanted to leave for Barca then they would have picked him up for peanuts. £10mil at the very most. We’ll get at least £20mil for him this Summer even after his very worrying injury prone season. What most people seem to forget is one of Henry’s very best assets was his amazing ability to remain uninjured (generally because he jumps out of tackles with good reason).
Arsene has realised the dangers in building a whole team around a player and instead he’s building a team of players all with very similar abilities (flair definitely being one of them!). It looks beautiful to watch but has it’s weaknesses.
I think AW has realised that and now wants a bit more variety and that will come from selling the superstar and buying some grafters. If Thierry is sold players like Ryan Babel, Malouda, Eto’o, Torres or Trez the “Ice-Cool-Goal-Machine” could most certainly “rock up” over to Arsenal.
You’re right, Arsene is a very confident guy and he’s a very smart man for a man in football but let’s keep this in mind…things are relative. He’s not a rocket scientist. He’ll make mistakes but he’ll make less mistakes than most. Wenger has done truely amazing things at Arsenal in his tenure and I doubt any other man in football could have done the same.
what the hell now if wenger had sold are best player HENRY you would be saying he made a big mistake in selling him i swear to god …. henry is staying for good … this is getting so boring now… you need to get a grip man
I think Arsene has realised the dangers in building a whole team around a player and instead he’s building a team of players all with very similar abilities (flair definitely being one of them!). It looks beautiful to watch but has it’s a weaknesses.
I believe that Wenger, if he is discussing transfers with Barcelona, is talking about the transfer of Eto to Arsenal and not the sale of Henry to Barcelona. If this is Wenger’s last season at Arsenal, I don’t beleive he will sell Henry but to get the strongest team money can buy for the coming season so that he will be in an advantageous position in his coming negotiations with Arsenal.
For Henry,Wenger should ask Barcelona for atleast $40million because this is what he got for Nicholas Anelka From Real Madrid and Henry is a whole lot better than Anelka
As long as Henry is not the captain, i would like for him to stay…..
Is the next season Wenger’s last? Though he is under contract for only one more year, he has bought two more youngsters(Fabiansky and the Norwegian teenager in defence) and he’ll do those things only with a long term future plan, so will Wenger be leaving after next year? And Cesc has stated that if the manager leaves he’ll also leave, but he’ll stay put as long Wenger’s there. Note that he mentioned Wenger,not Henry……
Why would he go to a team that finished 2nd to that bag of rubbish Madrid and only won the cup final coz we have a mad german in goal. Henry recognises that Wenger is the man responsible for his glittering career and while he stays, Titi stays. Can see your argument but your a manc and live in a rose-tinted world!
well, im an arsenal fan(huge) and have just finished morning over Thierry Henry’s departure to barcelona. and i wanted to ask anyone a question: will anelka,torres and babel join arsenal? please answer i check this website daily.
bein joué henry
hola henry sos el mejor jugador sos mi idolo de re quiero sos el mejor