Henry struggles to tell Aubameyang to stay at Arsenal

Thierry Henry has claimed that as much as he wants Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to stay at Arsenal, he would be a hypocrite for doing so.

The Frenchman still holds the record of all-time Arsenal goalscorer to this day, and is widely recognised as our club’s greatest player of all-time, but despite being heralded as royalty, even he left the club after eight years to join Barcelona.

He remains a big fan of Arsenal of course, and while he wants to see Aubameyang stay beyond the summer, he understands that as a footballer he would be wrong to tell him to stay when he didn’t.

He said: “Everybody will do what they have to do. How am I going to say to somebody to stay when I left?

“You know, things happen. It doesn’t kill the love that you have for a place.

“As an Arsenal fan, you want him to stay. As a football player, he will assess the situation with his family, with his dad who I know also, to see what’s the best for them.

“If you’re an Arsenal man, you don’t want him to leave.

“Also the guy has a career and I don’t know what’s in his head and where he wants to go, all I know is we’re definitely going to miss his goals if he does leave.

“At the end of the day I said it when I was at Sky, it was a sort of thing, he does score goals and you take the goals of Aubameyang away, it’s a tough one.

“I respect what these sort of people, what people have to go through and what desires or dreams they have.

“As an Arsenal man, any Arsenal fan would be crazy to say he should leave.

“We don’t want him to leave but on the other side, you have to understand that the guy has a life and maybe he needs to see something else, who knows.

“But as an Arsenal man, I hope that he stays.”

Of course every Arsenal fan wants PEA to stay at the club, and the fear is ever-growing as we get nearer and nearer the transfer window, although when that will be is yet to be decided.

Henry has previously stated how he initially regretted leaving Arsenal, and even returned to the club later in his career for a short spell during the off-season of the MLS.

Aubameyang isn’t guaranteed to enjoy his football elsewhere, but he has made no secret of his desire to play in Spain, and you cannot blame him if the opportunity does arrive this summer, although it will be painful to see him leave.

I hope that the exciting arrival of Mikel Arteta persuades Aubameyang to extend his stay in North London, but if he has to leave, I hope he is only leaving to fulfil his dream of playing in La Liga…

Would he really leave to play for a league rival?

Patrick