The retirement of Thierry Henry from playing professional football has obviously got the Arsenal fans and the football media looking back on his fantastic career and discussing just how good he was. And whatever people think about his career as a whole or his status among Premier League and international greats, there is little doubt that he is right up there with the best Arsenal players ever.
We have often wondered if the Gunners would ever see his like again but I think that we may already have a player at the club that could turn out to be just as important to the club and his name is Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean international forward may not go on to match or break Henry’s Arsenal goal record as the Frenchman was prolific with us for eight seasons, but while he is here, Alexis could have a similar effect on the team and the club.
It is not just the attacking ability and other talents that the 25-year old shows on the pitch for the Gunners, and they are considerable. He seems to have the same way of inspiring the players around him on to better things and that is a rare and special thing for a player to do.
Henry did that and lifted the whole Arsenal team a few levels. He also made the Gunners a much more attractive proposition to players who might be thinking about a transfer move. For years now Arsene Wenger has struggled in the transfer market, partly due to the money situation but also because it seemed we were less likely to win a trophy than many of our rivals.
With Alexis now as the main star in a very strong looking squad, when fit, Wenger might well find his job of persuading big name players to head to north London a whole lot easier.
Alexis still has a lot to do and a long way to go before being put up with the great Henry, but do you think he could have the same impact for Arsenal in the next few years?
Alexis is a top top player. Alexis will no doubt become club legend.
But Henry is premier league best ever. No one can match him. I mean Henry like Wenger said is the Mohammad Ali of football. Pace, power , skills and intelligence. right foot left foot, header.
Can any one tell me one weakness in Henry. He was also a master in free kicks.
many defender said that he was unplayable.
No defender in the world could mark the master.
@sunny13
“Can any on tell me one weakness in henry”
Mate your answer….NON.
Five reasons why he’s #king
He has the best minutes to goal rate of any player with more than 10 EPL goal s (122)
He hold the record for the most assist in a single season (20-02/03)
Scored the most goal at a single EPL ground 144 at Highbury
He is the only player to scores 20 EPL goals in five successful seasons
He is the height goal scorer FRENCH MAN in the UCL History (50 goals)
Alexis may become ur legend but no worth of compering them please I hope Alexis do well for us and earn his own legendary status.
I rest my case.
That is why is #the king #legend
Alexis Sanchez
Alexis out
Yeah, OUT for goals.
OUT of this world
Haha just kidding
Can our players stop talking, every time they talk to media and try make things look better than they are, we play poorly.
They must stfu and focus on Pool game, cause going to believe their own bullsh1T
Although Ozil has had a mixed experience with Arsenal that sent a powerful, and much needed message to the football world-
I doubt very much if Sanchez would have joined us otherwise, it’s been a long time coming, and the huge injury list may have disguised the fact that Arsenal is a rising force again-
I think and believe that we will challenging for top honours again in the next few years
“…in the next FEW years.”, that’s how many years from now precisely? I hope not a decade. #InWEngerWeTrust
Yes A few years like 3, 6, 19 ?
I do agree with Simon_MrMac
that our injury toll is totally off
the scale. Its nobodys fault but
we have yet to have our top team
on the park together and we are
nearing the half way mark of the season.
So yes we will be a rising fourth for a while yet.
We have the players, I dont believe a player like Ramsey, Ozil and Carzola can suddenly just drop from hero to zero like they did. The coach must have a big role in that. To get top perfomance from the already top class players, top class motivation and top class tactics must be implemented
So you think when a player is in bad form it’s the fault of the manager? These are grown men, professional football why the f do they always need somebody to motivate them. Do you think Ronaldo needs the manager to motivate him in order for him to perform??
You can criticize the manager for tactical errors but its too easy to blame him for everything. The players also have responsibility to take they are no children and the earn a sh*t load of money ffs!!
Nonsense.
Wenger playing Ozil and Carzola on the wings, Ramsey too far forward in his ‘I love Jack’ 4-1-4-1 formation.
Of course the manager is at fault here.
Fair enough. When they are played out of position it affects their performance thats true. But still, top players need to take responsibility. Di Maria was played out of his natural position when Bale joined Real and he still performed brilliantly.
Hate to say it but Rooney has one attribute that no-one can really slag off the right attitude – he plays in a different position nearly every game for Man U and England but just gets on with it. And playing someone out of position needs to be looked at from the team perspective not the individuals. And playing “out of position” for Arsenal isn’t always what it first appears to be. Look at the heat maps for some of these players – they are all over the place. The TV companies like to get the team sheets and arrange everyone on a neat graphic – but the reality is these players, particularly the front 4, have huge freedom on the pitch.
Wenger please buy atleast another alexis this january that plays different position.
Reus!
Sanchez is doing better than
Henry right now albeit half a
season. Henry also played with
Bergkamp Pires Llungberg Vieira Gilberto
and the “Wall” behind them.
Also Henri has not had to contend
with Chelski and SheikCity.
If he even turns out to be the player half the king was it would be great and he will be our legend too. The signs are there:
– Can he win a game on his own – yes
– Can he dribble – yes
– Does he play his passion – yes
– Is he fast – yes
– Can he score beautiful goals even against the big teams – yes
– Is he captain material – yes
– Does he have great team play – yes
– Does he play with a swag – yes
– Can he take the league by storm and be top goal scorer 5 seasons in a role – well will have to wait and see
Alexis is a top talent and if well managed and the right team around him, the sky is just the begging for this lad. Keep in mind Henry hard a great great team around him to help fulfill his accomplishments, we can only hope Wenger fills the gaps and build another great team around Alexis.
Kill the reds on the weekend amigo!!!
#IN17WETRUST!!!
Sanchez is the type of player that gets us a few points a season when we shouldn’t have got them. No one in our team was doing that. Last year we were 7 points off the leaders. For all the – we can’t beat a big team, we have injuries etc the only difference between us and them was that City had Toure and Loserpool had Suarez that gave them those few points they didn’t deserve.
“Right now profit and greed is running the club”. Right now we have just had a bigger net spend in the last 5 months than the previous 10 years combined. If profit and greed really is the driving force then £80M on Ozil and Sanchez doesn’t really make sense.