Soler
Established Member
Originally posted Friday, 18 February 2005 4:30 AM
If I walked up to a randomly picked AC Milan fan and asked them “when you think of Arsenal who do you think of?” They’d reply with the name of our supremely talented striker Thierry Henry. Thierry is the face of Arsenal, the Arsenal that’s marketed more than any of the others – he’s even one of the faces of Nike nowadays. He’s our golden boy, the player we love the most and the player who is at the forefront of our quest for domestic and continental glory. Generally, we all love Thierry like a Milanese would love their attacking golden boy Andriy Shevchenko.
Everyone was in raptures when the announcement of José Antonio Reyes’ signing came to universal fruition. This was no ordinary Spaniard. Young José Antonio was the catalyst in a 4-0 drubbing of Real Madrid in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. This match brought Reyes to the attention of a lot of the European giants. After spending two years and some fifty matches plus training sessions Wenger snapped Reyes up for an initial fee of £7m while David Dein was on holiday in Spain (tee hee). Thierry’s heir apparent had arrived
But within months of Reyes’ arrivals fans started to question the current golden boys attitude toward his heir. Some fans had simply drawn themselves to the conclusion that Thierry simply didn’t like Reyes all that much. From his venomous glares to his lack of applauding a missed time ball to our mercurial Frenchman, it seemed as though Thierry and José just simply didn’t get along. I distinctly remember none too long ago on this sites very forums there was a large outcry when Thierry slid Reyes’ hands off his shoulders after that thunderous goal against Manchester United at Highbury.
I didn’t really believe it for awhile. Really, who hasn’t seen Thierry act like a moody prima donna before? Surely by now all Gooners should be well aware that our golden boy is just a typical Frenchman in that he does sulk if things don’t go his way and can have dramatic mood swings, and so on, and so on.
The truth is Thierry acts that way with almost every player except those who have more seniority than he does. Vieira and Bergkamp, I guess, are ahead of him in those stakes. As I mentioned above regarding Henry’s goal against Manchester United – what followed after that? It was a similar act of petulance toward a ‘lower ranking’ team member in Lauren, when the Cameroonian Spaniard hesitated to shoot or instead of passing to an open Henry. Thierry’s reaction was one of where he screamed at Lauren and waved his hands and arms about like a lunatic. He’s done the same with Gilberto, and even once or twice with Robert Pires – a player you wouldn’t think Thierry would overreact and act in such a way with.
But that’s exactly what this whole saga is; an overreaction to Henry’s behaviour that nobody should really take serious note of. It’s just how he is. From what I’ve gathered over the years, Thierry is a person who demands perfection from everybody on the pitch, and especially from himself. In turn when he sees players make a mess of the simple and the difficult he reacts in a manner he would if it were he who made the mistake. I also think he demands perfection from Reyes because Henry himself sees the unbelievable potential of this special player from Seville – I don’t think he feels threatened by him at all, and I do think his ‘outbursts’ at Reyes on the pitch are because he’s disappointed that young José hasn’t delivered the perfect ball, such is his talent.
I think the whole saga was blown well out of proportion. To suggest Henry simply doesn’t like Reyes is ludicrous in my opinion. It was José who dared Thierry to chip the next penalty he’d take – Reyes has even said his best friend at the club was in fact Thierry Henry. The first goal against Middlesbrough scored by Henry came off of a delightful long pass by Reyes. Even if Henry and Reyes don’t really get along, there’s no reason why they can’t play together for the club. Andy Cole and our chum Teddy Sheringham managed to do it rather well.
And now, when José needs support from his team mates the most after the hoax pulled on him by the Spanish media (to be honest I don’t know if they’re better or worse than the English media), it’s Henry leading the pack. Twice now he has come out in the media and spoke of his admiration for him and what a talent he is, and surely Henry showing this kind of support for our supposed want-away Spaniard (yet again the media are behind it) should help in the process of keeping Reyes at Arsenal a little bit longer. Surely somebody who supposedly hates him wouldn’t want to keep him at the club, would he? Of course not.
I suppose we should all thank ourselves their names are Thierry Henry and José Antonio Reyes, and not Edmundo and Romário. I suppose we should all thank ourselves that Reyes doesn’t own a restaurant that’s got a rather unflattering drawing of Henry sitting on a deflated ball pinned up in front of the toilet door and that they haven’t spent six months sniping at each other in the media.
Or that neither of them decided that they both should take a penalty and have an on-pitch argument over it; or that Henry isn’t the captain of the club and David Dein decides to strip him of the captaincy and hand it to Reyes where Henry in turn storms out of the dressing rooms and goes home, just like Eurico Miranda did to Edmundo at Vasco Da Gama when he gave the newly arrived Romário the Vasco armband.
See what I mean? It’s blown well out of proportion and is really nothing to get that worked up about … especially compared to the antics of Edmundo and Romário in Brazil.
If I walked up to a randomly picked AC Milan fan and asked them “when you think of Arsenal who do you think of?” They’d reply with the name of our supremely talented striker Thierry Henry. Thierry is the face of Arsenal, the Arsenal that’s marketed more than any of the others – he’s even one of the faces of Nike nowadays. He’s our golden boy, the player we love the most and the player who is at the forefront of our quest for domestic and continental glory. Generally, we all love Thierry like a Milanese would love their attacking golden boy Andriy Shevchenko.
Everyone was in raptures when the announcement of José Antonio Reyes’ signing came to universal fruition. This was no ordinary Spaniard. Young José Antonio was the catalyst in a 4-0 drubbing of Real Madrid in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. This match brought Reyes to the attention of a lot of the European giants. After spending two years and some fifty matches plus training sessions Wenger snapped Reyes up for an initial fee of £7m while David Dein was on holiday in Spain (tee hee). Thierry’s heir apparent had arrived
But within months of Reyes’ arrivals fans started to question the current golden boys attitude toward his heir. Some fans had simply drawn themselves to the conclusion that Thierry simply didn’t like Reyes all that much. From his venomous glares to his lack of applauding a missed time ball to our mercurial Frenchman, it seemed as though Thierry and José just simply didn’t get along. I distinctly remember none too long ago on this sites very forums there was a large outcry when Thierry slid Reyes’ hands off his shoulders after that thunderous goal against Manchester United at Highbury.
I didn’t really believe it for awhile. Really, who hasn’t seen Thierry act like a moody prima donna before? Surely by now all Gooners should be well aware that our golden boy is just a typical Frenchman in that he does sulk if things don’t go his way and can have dramatic mood swings, and so on, and so on.
The truth is Thierry acts that way with almost every player except those who have more seniority than he does. Vieira and Bergkamp, I guess, are ahead of him in those stakes. As I mentioned above regarding Henry’s goal against Manchester United – what followed after that? It was a similar act of petulance toward a ‘lower ranking’ team member in Lauren, when the Cameroonian Spaniard hesitated to shoot or instead of passing to an open Henry. Thierry’s reaction was one of where he screamed at Lauren and waved his hands and arms about like a lunatic. He’s done the same with Gilberto, and even once or twice with Robert Pires – a player you wouldn’t think Thierry would overreact and act in such a way with.
But that’s exactly what this whole saga is; an overreaction to Henry’s behaviour that nobody should really take serious note of. It’s just how he is. From what I’ve gathered over the years, Thierry is a person who demands perfection from everybody on the pitch, and especially from himself. In turn when he sees players make a mess of the simple and the difficult he reacts in a manner he would if it were he who made the mistake. I also think he demands perfection from Reyes because Henry himself sees the unbelievable potential of this special player from Seville – I don’t think he feels threatened by him at all, and I do think his ‘outbursts’ at Reyes on the pitch are because he’s disappointed that young José hasn’t delivered the perfect ball, such is his talent.
I think the whole saga was blown well out of proportion. To suggest Henry simply doesn’t like Reyes is ludicrous in my opinion. It was José who dared Thierry to chip the next penalty he’d take – Reyes has even said his best friend at the club was in fact Thierry Henry. The first goal against Middlesbrough scored by Henry came off of a delightful long pass by Reyes. Even if Henry and Reyes don’t really get along, there’s no reason why they can’t play together for the club. Andy Cole and our chum Teddy Sheringham managed to do it rather well.
And now, when José needs support from his team mates the most after the hoax pulled on him by the Spanish media (to be honest I don’t know if they’re better or worse than the English media), it’s Henry leading the pack. Twice now he has come out in the media and spoke of his admiration for him and what a talent he is, and surely Henry showing this kind of support for our supposed want-away Spaniard (yet again the media are behind it) should help in the process of keeping Reyes at Arsenal a little bit longer. Surely somebody who supposedly hates him wouldn’t want to keep him at the club, would he? Of course not.
I suppose we should all thank ourselves their names are Thierry Henry and José Antonio Reyes, and not Edmundo and Romário. I suppose we should all thank ourselves that Reyes doesn’t own a restaurant that’s got a rather unflattering drawing of Henry sitting on a deflated ball pinned up in front of the toilet door and that they haven’t spent six months sniping at each other in the media.
Or that neither of them decided that they both should take a penalty and have an on-pitch argument over it; or that Henry isn’t the captain of the club and David Dein decides to strip him of the captaincy and hand it to Reyes where Henry in turn storms out of the dressing rooms and goes home, just like Eurico Miranda did to Edmundo at Vasco Da Gama when he gave the newly arrived Romário the Vasco armband.
See what I mean? It’s blown well out of proportion and is really nothing to get that worked up about … especially compared to the antics of Edmundo and Romário in Brazil.
Awesome read.
