Why did he do it?

In case you hadn't heard (yeah right), Thierry Henry gave France a helping hand into the World Cup last night at the expense of the Republic of Ireland.

The hype surrounding this is pretty amazing. It's upsetting how biased people allow themselves to become. Everyone in the British media is saying Henry has tarnished his career with this, and that Ireland are heroes who should definitely have gone through, despite the fact that there was still over 15 minutes to play and a possible penalty shoot-out to get through.

Needless to say, as it's been said already, but had a more low profile player, in a more low profile game, with a different scoreline, we probably wouldn't hear a thing about it. Likewise, if an Irish player had committed such a sin last night we wouldn't hear much about it either.

But the crime continues among some of the posters on this site. Those loyal to Henry for his years of excellent service to Arsenal are almost making out that it's slightly more okay because he's done so many great things for the game.

I don't really buy any of it, nor am I very interested. There are a few questions to be asked that can be very easily answered.

Should he have done it? No. Does anyone really expect him to admit he did it on purpose? No. Should the match be replayed? No. Is he the first to do something like this? No. Is Henry the worst man who ever lived? No.

It's a shame we'll never know what he really thinks, because that's what makes me curious. Why did he feel the need to do it?

Does he somehow feel hard done by in his football career? All the medals with Arsenal, France, and the treble with Barcelona last season? Does it really satisfy him that this is how France have got to the World Cup? Does he think they deserve it? Is he frustrated that they're such a bad team these days compared to the old sides he played in? Does he really think they're going to do anything more than humiliate themselves as they did at the Euro?

It's confusing behaviour. A moment of selfish panic from a very insecure man. Very patronising towards his young team-mates in his last season at Arsenal, obviously hurt at not being the main man at Barca, and unable to cope with being part of such an average French squad. He just wanted to be at the World Cup so badly he didn't care how he did it.

Here I am going all psychological again, but Henry is a fascinating guy to watch. Rarely do you see a player quite so aware of the cameras and of his own reputation. He's a real actor out on the pitch. That had tarnished his reputation for me enough already. This incident means very little in the grand scheme of things.

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