Thierry Henry: a tribute to the greatest Arsenal player I've seen.

I thought it'd be a few more years before I wrote this post, but the time has come sooner than expected.

To say his transfer was a shock would be a considerable understatement; you only have to look at my previous post to see that. And to pretend that Thierry is somehow faultless and beyond criticism is similarly wrong. You only have to ask Jose Reyes that.

But now is the time to say thank you, and pay tribute to Thierry Henry.

To me, he is without a shadow of a doubt the best player I've seen in my 16 years as an Arsenal supporter. Vieira, Bergkamp, Adams, Wright: of course, they're all up there. Yet Thierry has something more than those other legends. He produced utterly sublime and incomparable moments of brilliance that changed games and won matches. He scored some of the greatest goals I've seen, and he did them playing for our club.

Ok, so he had a bit of an ego on him; one that was not always used productively. But wouldn't you if you were that good? And wasn't his swagger part of the reason we all loved him so much. I can't measure the joy I used to get from watching Thierry score, and then turn to the opposition fans with a look on his face that said, 'I am Thierry Henry; we are The Arsenal; who the hell are you?'

He may not have scored in the cup finals we had with him, but it was, more often than not, his goals that got us to those finals. His exhausted legs may not have been able to seal a Champions League Victory, but it was his goals against Madrid and Juventus, his pass against Villareal, and even his freekick in the final that took us to within a hair's breadth of that cup.

My favourite Henry goal? Well, obviously his flick over the head against United, or his 100mph, pitch-long slalom run against Spuds are right up there. Thierry himself says it was his second goal against Liverpool in 2004, the goal that put the invincibles back on track. Whilst it's hard to argue with that, my favourite is his goal in Madrid, as it exemplified almost every aspect of his brilliance: his ability to burst past players at speed, to change and win matches, to figuratively and literally shrug off opponents, and to ensure his finish slid past the keeper. And, of course, the occasion was rather good as well.



Remember: no-one has died. Thierry's departure is more like a best-friend moving away, or when one of your siblings grows up and leaves home: you'll keep in contact but, it's never quite the same. It hurts, but it's not the end of the world.

Finally, I'd like to re-iterate my thanks. Thierry has given me and so many other Arsenal fans so much happiness in the eight seasons he played for our club. I don't begrudge him the move one bit, even if his reasoning (particularly the parts about David Dein) are a little hard to swallow. There will be more posts this week on the ramifications and nature of the transfer, particularly focussing on what I feel to be the real reasons for the transfer. I really don't think that David Dein's departure has much to do with Thierry's. Also, he was hardly the greatest captain in the world.

But for today at least, let's focus on the good times. Thierry said in an interview that playing for Arsenal was an honour; well I'd like to say that watching him play for our club was an honour. For at least a couple of his seasons at our club, the greatest player in the world was an Arsenal player. I'll never forget that. So long Thierry, and good luck.

Thierry Henry Arsenal Tribute
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