Arsenal need a new Henry NOT a Bergkamp

There has been quite a lot said about the former Arsenal star Dennis Bergkamp in recent days, because the weekend marked the 20th anniversary of our incredibly talented Dutch master signing for the Gunners. The praise for the forward has been fulsome, with another former star Paul Merson going as far as telling Sky Sports that the Dutchman is the best ever to wear the Arsenal shirt.

That may be and there is little doubt that we would love to have him back in the current side, but I also feel that he is not really what we need at the minute. Bergkamp changed Arsenal in his time at Highbury, bringing some much needed craft and guile to a strong side and starting us down the road that Arsene Wenger has kept on.

However, Arsenal now have those Bergkamp attributes in spades, with amazing and technically gifted players like Santi Cazorla, Tomas Rosicky, Mesut Ozil and even the flicks and tricks of Olivier Giroud up front. What we really need now is another player like Thierry Henry, a goal scorer and killer of opposition to put the finishing touch on all that creativity.

Could Theo Walcott be that player? Or Alexis? Or can Wenger find one in the transfer market?

Tags Alexis Walcott Wenger

31 Comments

  1. Then make an offer for Lewandowski. When we have bought Bergkamp, 7.5 mil pounds was a lot of money. Make an offer for 35 mil to Lewandowski and give him up 100k. See if it works. Don’t fall into 54 mil Higuain trap. We don’t want another Podolski episode.

    1. I was feeling very hopeful the other day and this silly thought crossed my mind. Real Madrid sold us Özil and they won their 10th UCL title then Barca sold us Sanchez ….look at how that worked out for them. If Pep Guardiola is serious about pulling a Mourinho (winning the UCL with multiple teams) then Bayern must sell us Lewandowski.

    2. The fact you even compare Higuain to Podolski speaks volumes of your ignorance of the player. There’s no ‘trap’, if we can get Higuain he’d be a brilliant signing.

      Regarding the article I disagree, we have pace and power in abundance in our attack but we have no ST with guile, poise, moments of magic, and sheer class. Bergkamp is exactly the type of ST we miss.

      1. I don’t compare Podolski with Higuain, don’t worry. They are not even playing on the same position. I am comparing just the deals. We have paid around 30 million in contract and wages until now on Podolski and he scored 31 goals for us in three years. That’s 1 million per goal, I find it pretty expensive to be honest. Higuain will be also 1 million per goal (judging by seasons at Napoli) but that’s excluding his wage. Of course there’s a trap at 54 million, besides he did not get the boost he hoped for by moving to Napoli so I am not sure why should we pay double the price Napoli paid for him.

        1. Comparing the deals IS a comparison of them as players, primarily their returns on investment. Hence why I said it was ignorant….

          Higuain is far superior to Podolski and the outlay for Higuain would get you a player who scores 25+goals and proven elite ST.

    3. Bergkamp was one of our biggest signings of all time, at the time he joined from inter he was already a proven quality international. Good old days, highbury, bergkamp,henry,KANU,lijunberg,pires. I hope we can sign the 3 players we need this season and return to glory days.

    4. Welbeck has the potential to be our next henry, just give him another season. He is a henry in the making

  2. There has been a surge in the SkySports reference links on this page lately. Good signs!

  3. What I would pay have the quality of both legends at the club again.

    Players like them are hard to find in this era but there good players exist and the club SHOULD have enough in its reserves and personal to bring in top talent.

    I hope the Cech deal pulls through asap before Mou gets into the heads of our transfer team and derail them from looking at other key positions that need a touch up too.

    I am getting convinced each day that we will not add another DM this summer, I feel Wenger wants to put trust in Le Coq, the Captain and Flamini (Have you noticed how close Flamini looks with Ozil in most of the pictures, I feel they are good buddies and he has helped Ozil feel more at home at the club away from his German buddies), I hope Sanchez finds a bestie at the club too soon (man management is as important in a sports team as is for any organization).

    That been said I still hope we will get another top DM and a ST to push us to the next level.

    1. Tons of strikers are better than Giroud (upgraded version of this season) but the Boss seems to set his mind otherwise …

  4. We will be waiting a long time to see a striker on the same level of Henry at Arsenal. If I’m honest I see no one playing (including youngsters) now that have Henry’s blend of skills that we could realistically bring in. There simply aren’t any world class strikers. There are far more quality wingers around. Push Walcott up top and get a quality winger to throw on the right wing. We would have so much pace and work rate going forward, this coupled with the creativity of our brilliant midfield and I believe we really would have something special. Bring in Cech, a winger and a DM and we would be good to go.

    1. no world class strikers out there?what a load of rubbish,you don’t know anything about football,so how would you describe Aguero,Suarez,Lewandowski,Ibrahimovic etc

      1. I said there are no players that have Henry’s characteristics. None of the players you mentioned do (Suarez debatable).
        I also mentioned the fact that there are no realistic targets when it comes to strikers of Henry’s quality. Again none of the players you mention are realistic targets for us.
        Don’t be a cretin son.

  5. If its true that Ospina is the one moving on, this highlights Arsenes lack of ruthlessness. Surely, Ospina deputising for Cech would be the stronger pairing, and then loaning Szcz out for a couple of seasons just to hedge some bets. That to me sounds like the right thing to do. Ospinas experience could prove vital, and he aint prone to the madness we see from our young Pole which is huge, or could prove to be huge in a title fight.

    I get that allot of people like Szcz and he is actually a very good shot stopper when his head is in the game but he is just so unpredictable. We have to think about best options for Arsenal with loyalty or favoritism aside. Yes he counts as home grown but its not like we are in any trouble there so i think it would only be an excuse to allow the home grown rule hold any sway.

    I think Wenger would be allowing his emotions get the better of him if he is to sell Ospina. What makes matters worse is today is mentioned how we are on the lookout for a third choice GK as Martinez is being loaned out. If Wenger had a ruthless streak he would say right, this season i am keeping the three of either Cech Ospina Szcz or Cech Ospina Martinez. The latter in my opinion as Szcz will need games for his development. We have seen che keep two of the worlds finest for atleast a season and even spu had three very good GKs for a time. I just think it would be hasty of us to not use these options to our best advantage.

    1. are you joking? it can’t get more ruthless then selling on your starting goalkeeper after he broke into the team in his ONLY year at the club.

      so ruthless I can’t believe he will do it..

      1. Ospina arrived as no2 and it was Szcz shortcomings that gave him the gloves. Thats a fact. If Szcz was demoted for Ospina well then keeping the best one on bench is the ruthless decision, Szcz would be third choice from three so how is making him second choice ruthless.

        1. I didnt explain myself properly there and confused myself after reading.
          Why i think Wenger is letting his emotions get the better. Wenger, finally, finally dropped Szcz and put his faith in Ospina. Ospina rose to the occasion. And now Wengers gonna go back on that bit of ruthlessness.

  6. We already have a Bergkamp-esque player in the squad, his name is Mesut Ozil. Only a few strikers around that are worth breaking the bank for, but the transfer of welbeck and theo extension coming would make no sense if we were to sign a new centre forward.

    1. Ozil is not a goalscorer.

      He is similar in the fact that he has great technique/touch. But there the comparison ends..

      #iceman

  7. I can understand how the glory days fill us with so much nostalgia that we tend to desire like for like replacements of our former heroes. But we must I will happily embrace the new Thiery Henri if such a creature exists but if we cannot find him, just get me a prolific sharp shooter with a good conversion rate who can play in our kind of system. So if that player is the new Aguero or George Weir or the new Filipo Nzaghi, I will be very satisfied. It doesn’t matter really. The striker we are looking for could even be Theo Walcot that we already have! Who knows? Let us leave an open mind and be pleasantly surprised. I will only have a problem if Wenger signs the new Chamak or the new Lord Bendtner!

  8. I posted this before finishing composing what I had to say. What I meant to say is that I can understand how the glory days fill us with so much nostalgia that we tend to desire like for like replacements of our former heroes. But we must be ready to accept the fact that we may never get like for like replacements. Players cannot be cloned. I will happily embrace the new Thiery Henri if such a creature exists but if we cannot find him, just get me a prolific sharp shooter with a good conversion rate who can play in our kind of system. So if that player is the new Aguero or George Weir or the new Filipo Nzaghi, I will be very satisfied. It doesn’t matter really. The striker we are looking for could even be Theo Walcot that we already have! Who knows? Let us leave an open mind and be pleasantly surprised. I will only have a problem if Wenger signs the new Chamak or the new Lord Bendtner!

  9. It’s nice that we have a good history at our club. It puts pressure on the club to perform better.
    We should however know that many clubs are beginning to catchup with us (Chelsea, Man City)…teams like Barcelona and R. Madrid have increased the gap between us.
    I dearly hope we bring in brilliant signings to bridge this ever growing gap with top teams and pull away from the ones gaining on us.

    1. I hate to say it but Chelski have surpassed us. We have no Champions League nor recent success in the league.

      We do have history and two successes in Europe and now is our chance to improve and build on that. Let’s hope we take it..

  10. Henry at Arsenal was like Messi or Ronaldo for Barca and Real. The guy was literally dominant in all areas of play. Do we need a new Henry? Every club in the world could do with a new henry!

    If you’re talking about do we need a pacy, clinical finisher then yes – I’d say we do. We have a presence in and around the box in Giroud – he doesn’t have the guile of Bergkamp but he’s a decent enough shadow of the man. The problem is the game has evolved from 4-4-2 and now Giroud is the point of the attack, Bergkamp rarely played sole striker without pace around him. So we play with 2 fast high wingers – we have 3 good ones of those (maybe 4/5 if one or two players improve).

    We need a point man who can play back to goal and breaking the line. The problem is most players who break the line aren’t good at not breaking the line. I sadly only watch English footy (time restraints) but Rooney, Aguero and Costa are pretty much the only strikers I’d class like that. Of the next class down (Kane, Benteke, Sturridge) I don’t think they’d add as much to the team as their price tag would dictate. Get me a foreign striker who can play forward and back though, I’ll accept a price tag that may inflate slightly.

  11. We really need a striker that can take on defenders and really knows how to put the goals away. Welbeck, Walcott, Giroud, yes they’re good strikers but their miss to conversion ratio is pretty high. I’m definitely not comfortable with Giroud as our main striker so if we can get a proven striker or a winner like Reus then convert Sanchez fully then we can be a big threat to any team.

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