Thierry Henry, Alexander Hleb and Mathieu Flamini have left Arsenal in the past couple of seasons, while you get the impression (!) that Emmanuel Adebayor is not the most loyal player in the Gunners squad at the moment. It’s clear that while all of the above were either unknown or fairly mediocre before arriving at Highbury / Ashburton Grove, they walked out of the club with their reputation as a quality footballer significantly bolstered. [Read the rest of this entry »]

Ex-Arsenal and current Barcelona stars were recently talking up the ability of their ex-boss, but also revealed an air of uncertainty about the clubs future after the Frenchman’s reign.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

The Gunners thrilled everyone with their liquid football last season, and it’s clear that Arsene Wenger will insist on a similar style of play for the next campaign. Neat passing triangles and plenty of movement make them a joy to behold, but can they actually win anything playing this way? Their former captain thinks that they have a great chance! [Read the rest of this entry »]

In today’s most unlikely rumour, um, Daily Star has decided that Newcastle, Manchester City and Arsenal are all trying to get Thierry Henry to come back to England. Strangely, I can actually see City and Newcastle sniffing around and hoping for a bit of luck, but there’s no chance that Arsenal are going to welcome Henry back after all the ‘we’re better without him’ stuff the players and coach were spouting all season.

Henry has had a less than amazing season at Barcelona, but after spending so long playing in such a specific way for Wenger he probably needs a good period to settle in. If he stays at Barca, expect much better things from him.

But should he decide that he wants to come back to England, and he won’t, we can’t see someone of his ego dropping down to sign for a team outside the Champions League.

So while “Henry to (teamwithmoney)” rumours won’t go away this summer, does anyone think there’s a real chance of it happening?

‘Thierry Henry Thierry Henry Thierry Henry Thierry Henry’. So goes the chant that Arsenal fans used to sing about, yes, you’ve guessed it, Thierry Henry. The striker was something of a hit during his time at Highbury/the Emirates, scoring a veritable plethora of goals and winning countless player of the year awards.

He was also handsomely paid during his time in North London, especially in his final season at the club. The Guardian has done some digging around and claims that for just 17 appearances, the Frenchman picked up a cool £10 million for his troubles. Ker-ching indeed.

Thierry Henry received a seven-figure signing-on fee in his final season at Arsenal that financial analysis of the club’s accounts estimates to have been as high as £5m. The Arsenal Supporters Trust has conducted a review of the amortisation and player-registration costs in the club’s six-monthly accounts to last November. That analysis points to the existence of a substantial one-off sum having been paid in 2006.

If the trust’s calculations on the extraordinary item are correct, the former Arsenal captain picked up more than £10m in wages and fees in his last season with the club. That would make him considerably the highest-earning player in a single season in the history of English football, a campaign in which he made 17 Premier League appearances.

Presumably Thierry pays an extra 50p to ‘go large’ in fast-food chains and is also willing to pay the £15 upgrade fee to move into business class from economy on trains. There, he can enjoy extra leg-room and also be served a nice selection of cakes and a range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

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You can take the boy out of Arsenal, but it seems like you can’t take the Arsenal out of the boy. The Daily Telegraph report that Thierry Henry was almost as inconsolable as his former Gunners team-mates after watching them bow out of Europe on Tuesday night. The striker still clearly holds the club close to his heart, despite joining Barcelona last summer. The newspaper reveals that he had special praise for Theo Walcott’s mazy run to assist Arsenal’s second goal, something that Henry himself would have been pleased with.

”I watched the game like a lunatic. Especially when Theo [Walcott] went on that run – it was out of this world. ‘Come on, guys!’ I was saying. ‘Six minutes to go.’ And then came the penalty and I was so sad because these lads have been amazing all season. OK, they have the opportunity to bounce back at Manchester and keep their title hopes alive, but as an Arsenal supporter I was really down for them. I didn’t think they deserved it. It wasn’t so much the penalty at Anfield as the penalty they didn’t get at the Emirates. If they had won the first leg, it would have been different.”

Well Thierry, as they say, if my auntie had bollocks, she’s be my uncle. If Liverpool had gone out instead, I’m sure their fans would have bemoaned an inability to tackle Walcott, who ran the length of the pitch to set up Adebayor. Arsenal fans will surely be hoping that the Barca striker can inflict some damage on Manchester United in the semi-final of the Champions League.

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But will it end in tears for Thierry Henry? The Frenchman joined Barcelona in order to further his career, yet the formidable might of Manchester United stand in his and Barcelona’s way. Sky Sports report that the former Arsenal striker is salivating at the prospect of going head-to-head with the likes of Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez, although he’s not sure that the Red Devils should be favourites.

“This is a game to get excited about, but we will have to play well because we will be up against a team who are playing incredibly. They are on great form,” he said. “People will say they are favourites but nobody can really know.

“They are a team in first place in their league and Cristiano Ronaldo is having an incredible season, so we know them pretty well. They won’t be able to surprise us.”

Who is your bet to be playing Chelsea or Liverpool in the final? This Barcelona team might have plenty of star names but they’re having a mediocre season domestically (by their usual standards) and Manchester United have the added advantage of playing the second leg of the semi-final at Old Trafford. It’s safe to say that Rooney and Ronaldo won’t be rested for that one.

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Word on the street is that the marketing behemoth that is David Beckham is to be joined stateside by another former Premier League star, Barcelona’s ex-Arsenal wide boy/striker Thierry Henry. Even though the Frenchman is only in his first season at the Camp Nou, it looks like an MLS move could be on the cards with The Sun reporting that:

“The French striker has been targeted to launch the newly-formed Seattle team when they make their MLS debut next year.

“And the franchise’s multi-billionaire owner Paul Allen will tempt Henry with a deal worth £150,000 a week.”

Would Thierry really swap the palm trees of Barca for the wet and cold pacific northwest? And what of his daughter, who he claims he doesn’t see enough of anyway, why would he want to waltz off 6,000 miles further away than he already is?

Read updated Sports News in the Sports site sportingo.com

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Thierry Henry is now confidently predicting that Arsenal will storm all the way to Premier League glory – with the French star claiming that Arsenal’s brand of good looking football will see them finish on top.
Henry revealed that there is still a little piece of his heart that loves Arsenal, and he watches them on TV and hits his ex-teammates with avalanches of text messages to find out the latest information. Sounds to me like ‘ol Thierry is a bit of a control freak, add to this the rumours that Henry was a huge presence at the club who actually hampered the growth of Arsenal and you begin to see why Arsene let him go.
haranguing teammates with texts, demanding to know what is going on at the club, watching them on TV; is Henry like the obsessive bunny boiling ex who just won’t let go?

You could understand if he’d signed for Liverpool or Everton but The Sun are reporting that Thierry Henry has likened his Barcelona experience to being part of the Beatles. And it’s not because him and Ronaldinho sit on the back of the coach, strumming their guitars and taking illegal drugs.

He said: “It has been a fantastic experience. I am enjoying it.

“When you play with Barca away from home, it is chaos. When you travel with Barca, it’s like The Beatles are in town.

“I don’t have any regrets. Not at all. I’ve only been on the bench three times and one of those was for a rest.

“I have seven goals in the league, three in the Champions League and three in the cup. And I have eight assists. For a winger, that is not bad!

“I love London, don’t get me wrong. But I also love Barcelona. The weather here is amazing and the food.”

Looks like Monsieur Henry is starting to enjoy life at the Nou Camp, away from the grim weather and the fish suppers washed down by a pint of London Pride. What are the chances he winds up facing his former Arsenal team-mates in the Champions League final?

You can practically guarantee a war of words leading up to a game between Arsenal and Manchester United, with this weekend being no different. Sure, there’s been some mutual compliments coming from both camps but Gunners captain has disregarded the pleasantries in favour of giving their arch-rivals a slagging off instead. Sky Sports report the Frenchman has well and truly lit the blue touch paper.

“They are a strong team with lots of experienced players. But, sometimes, they think they’re too good. Too arrogant, yes,” he told GQ magazine.

“It can make you complacent. We understand that problem. We know we have to score goals, be strong in defence and kill teams in the first half.

“Our squad can win things. And I know that it will be difficult for Manchester United to win.”

Surely this accusation of arrogance from Gallas is the pot calling the kettle black? The former Chelsea defender is no stranger to strutting around a football pitch, lording it up when his team have won a match. Until last season, the Gunners had a player in their squad whose arrogance superceded anything the Red Devils can offer. Thierry Henry is now plying his trade at Barcelona.

Yet another story linking Didier Drogba with a move away from Chelsea appears in the Daily Star, but this time it’s not the Ivorian striker shooting his big mouth off. Instead, it’s the the turn of the similarly arrogant Samuel Eto’o to praise Deputy Drog to high heaven and wonder out loud how amazing Barcelona’s strikeforce would be if they signed the Blues striker.

He said: “I am not 100 per cent sure what the intentions of Barcelona are, but Drogba would be an excellent player for the team.

“It would not be a problem if he arrived at the club, but extra help to return this team to where it should be, the best in the world.

“I am a friend of Drogba and I know that he has always been interested in playing in Spain and in Barcelona.

“A team with Messi, Henry, Drogba and me is possible in the pitch without anybody having to leave the club. It would be a super-offensive team.”

Drogba has already been super-offensive to Chelsea fans with his constant ‘I love you, I love you not’ behaviour and it’s nothing short of ludicrous that Barca manager Frank Rijkaard would even consider fielding the quartet at the same time anyway. Since when did players start becoming so disrespectful as to make such public utterances as the above?

Last summer FC Barcelona lured away Thierry Henry from Arsenal and this summer they are reported on their way to scooping out yet another and more vital figure from the Emirates. Reports from Spain suggest that the Catalan giants are targeting to replace their perilously-hanging-by-his-own-coattail coach Frank Rijkaard by Arsene Wenger.

Of course this news is merely rumours and at this point shouldn’t be taken seriously at all. After all, Wenger has forever said that he loves Arsenal and that his future is in north London and although Barca are a bigger club than the Gunners, president Joan Laporta wouldn’t be able to seduce the Frenchman from the Emirates.

Barca are also eyeing Jose Mourinho, Marco van Basten and Carlo Ancelotti among others but Wenger’s name is thrown into the hat for the scintillating football style that he has instilled in Arsenal. Barca have lost a lot of chunk of their old charm recently and the Catalana are dying to watch some old and beloved sorcery.

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Thierry Henry’s departure to FC Barcelona in the summer has galvanized Arsenal with responsibilties in the team shifted to all the members. Arsene Wenger’s men are 5 points clear at the top of the table in the English Premier League and are actually playing well without Henry than they dd with him last season. And a few cats are also coming out of the bag.

Arsenal star Alexander Hleb is one of the main players for the Gunners and has been in excellent form for them. He reckons that Henry was actually a inhibiting factor the club’s younger players to take up vital roles in the team since the French star was considered as the benchmark. Hleb says:

Our defenders would get the ball and straight away their eyes would be searching out only Henry. A lot of people forgot they could take the game on themselves as well. Of course, Henry is a great player and part of the history of the club. But at the same time his departure helped the younger players break through and feel like leaders.

We all knew it and this comes as nothing new. Yet you cannot forgot what Henry did for the club in all those scintillating years and the Arsenal fans shall forever love him, come what may.

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Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor has revealed that he is still close to Thierry Henry, and he gives him tips, advice, and praise. Adebayor said:

“Thierry is like my brother. He has just sent me another message right now to congratulate me. He talks to me a lot.

“During the summer he told me he believed in me, he believed in my qualities. I want to thank him a lot as he helped me out a great deal.

“He sends me messages saying ‘I know you have a lot of qualities, you have scored 15 or 16, but you can score more if you concentrate more in the games’.

“That is what I am trying to do now, to listen — and I am very happy.

“I don’t know if he speaks to the other players but the most important thing is that we are in touch. I like to talk to him.”

So despite leaving the Gunners, Thierry Henry continues to aid them from afar – could a coaching role beckon in the future?

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Actually this Sky Sports quote of Kevin Keegan hoping (against hope) to lure Thierry Henry to St. James’s Park has been pulled out of context. The Newcastle United manager did indeed say this during a two-hour programme on Radio Newcastle:

I would like to fetch Thierry Henry back to England. He’s the best player I’ve seen in the Premiership When you’re pitch-side, what I’ve seen him do to good players has been incredible. Sometimes you can take advantage of a situation and get what I call lucky.
Actually the question was something like this: if you were in a fantasy world and could have any one player you fancied, who would it be?

Hopefully now you would understand the situation more clearly.

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The Daily Telegraph report that the only place Alexander Hleb will be leaving for in the summer is wherever Arsenal decide to play their pre-season tour. The winger’s agent has poured water on the rumours linking the Belarussian to Barcelona, insisting that his player will remain with the Gunners for potentially years to come. And who can blame him!

Wenger’s men currently top the Premier League table by two points over Manchester United, and Hleb’s agent, Niki Spilevski, said: “I can understand why Barcelona would be interested in Alex.

“But Alex loves Arsenal. He feels he is at the best club in the world.

“He has the ideal manager, he loves his team-mates and he loves London. Why would he want to leave?”

Hleb has also seen star striker Thierry Henry leave for the Catalan giants last summer and appear to be unsettled, hankering ever-so-slightly for a move back to the Emirates. With Arsenal gunning for a Premier League and a Champions League title, you’d have to be a fool to consider a move anywhere else.

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Yahoo News speculates that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger might just as well have to lose his star striker Emmanuel Adebayor before long. The Togo international has been much impressive this season in the absence of the departed Thierry Henry and is playing regularly for the Gunners.

Adebayor scored twice as Premiership title contenders beat Manchester City 3–1 at the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday to return to the pole position in the league table. Adebayor is fighting for the top goal scorer honor in the league this season with Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and a number of clubs have been touted as his potential suitors.

Juventus, AC Milan and even Real Madrid are said to be monitoring Adebayor’s development closely and it is expected that one or all of them could launch a bid soon. That would be too much of a temptation for the Togo international to resist. Will Wenger be able to hold onto one his prized asset in the long run?

The Daily Telegraph have reported that Thierry Henry is keen for an Arsenal return. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but some time in the future, the Barcelona striker would like to return to the club he clearly holds dear in his heart.

Henry said: “It doesn’t matter what happens with my new club, I will never find the same affection that I was shown at Arsenal, partly because I think I will never play for another squad for eight years – my legs won’t let me.

“To play for Arsenal for eight years, winning or losing at Highbury, the joy, the sadness, everything was simply incredible.

“You often return to the place that you belong and, therefore, I hope one day to be able to work with the club.

“I have the club in my blood – I always follow Arsenal when they play and I’m happy when they win.”

Could it be that Henry is having regrets over his move to Spain? While many predicted that the Gunners would struggle without their former talisman, his departure is now seen as beneficial to the team as a whole, allowing younger members of the team to play with more freedom. Would Arsenal fans welcome Henry back as a player?

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