The former Arsenal and France super striker Thierry Henry was probably a bit surprised at the backlash that came his way after his comments about Arsenal and Olivier Giroud after we were held to a scoreless draw by Chelsea recently. Whether it was this or just a desire to make his views more clear I don´t know, but he has spoken out to say that he has been misunderstood.
As reported by The Mirror, Henry wants to make it clear that he was not getting on the back of our big centre forward. When he said that the Gunners could not win the Premier League title with Giroud he did not mean that his fellow countryman is not good enough, apparently, but that he needs help up front.
It is true that we have had to rely heavily on Giroud in the last three years and Henry points out that he had the likes of Begkamp and Wiltord backing him up and taking the pressure off his shoulders when he was firing the Gunners to trophy after trophy.
The TV pundit explained, “Alexis Sanchez made me believe he can [take Arsenal to the next level]. But I do believe he needs help. I believe also that Olivier Giroud needs help.
“I said what I said [about Giroud] and people took it a bit the wrong way. When we were winning titles it was because [Nwankwo] Kanu could do a job when I needed a rest.
“Dennis Bergkamp, Sylvain Wiltord was coming sometimes with a hat-trick there, a goal at the end of a game but were not always starters.
“I think [Arsenal] need another striker – that’s what I said the other day – that has other characteristics than Giroud.
“I think they need to improve that [squad] with other guys.
“When I talked about the spine and talking about the goalkeeper and a centre-back and a holding midfielder and a striker, I’m not saying to the guys [who are already there] ‘leave and let [new guys] come and play’, no, [I’m saying] compete.”
Perhaps seeing the impact that a different sort of forward in Theo Walcott had the other day helps to clarify Henry´s case. I do think, as well, that pundits, especially new ones, are under pressure to prove they are not too biased by criticising their former clubs. Gary Neville has certainly not held back on Man United so hopefully Wenger and Giroud can take Henry´s words on the chin and move on. Maybe the boss should listen to his former star as well. What do you think?
Henry, you shouldn’t have looked into his eyes. Fatal mistake.
Henry shud just stick to the truth (we waont make t with giroud up front) bse even the other players that used to help out thiery henry are miles better than giroud.
the kind of help that giroud needs is replacement
King Henry, you did disappoint me this time … what you said about Giroud and the need of wc striker was fully correct, you don’t need to pull back
100% true King Henry was correct,Giroud must be 2nd choice striker to come on when we want to change our game plan,he’s not good enough to lead us to the EPL because a premiership winning team always has a 20 league goals striker in their ranks!
Did anybody here watch Kanu play? Beats Giroud by far!!!
F**k it, guys! We don’t need a pants model as our lead striker, Arsene should get us a proper world-class football striker.
Kanu was Bergkamps back up when injured, and Wiltord was for when Thierry was out. Sometimes we would make do with two main providers or sometimes two scorers but because Bergkamp and Henry where so good they could be classed as provider or goalscorer.
To a different degree Giroud can be classed as provider and goalscorer.
Henry is correct because Arsene must be the only manager who thinks one could be enough, having so much faith in his midfielders could be the reason. If it wasnt Henry who said this of Oli i would say they are only back tracking, but at time i remember saying how could he say one week Giroud is best in prem 2015 then say we will never claim title with him as main man… makes more sense that numerically is what he meant.
If we are to bring in another striker we have to get one who is better than Giroud. Id like to know what Henry would say about certain qualities needed.. who needs replacing and who just needs a decent back up.
I won’t say Giroud should leave (won’t be a bad thing though), but someone far much better needs to come in.
Forgive me but I just don’t get the idea about “just buying a decent backup” for maybe any position bar GK.
A backup to someone implies inferiority, so just how do you improve as a team buying lesser players than you currently have? No, you buy BETTER and the ‘lesser’ player either steps his game up or he moves on and you attempt to get better still.
In short, Giroud needs replaced with someone better (or at the least someone with a far greater ceiling). I think Giroud is one of the games best plan B strikers honestly, he’s a terrific alternative to have and would get into most teams in Europe for that specific function. Leading a team as the star man however he falls far short of the other leading strikers.
Higuain/Benzema/Cavani/Martinez are all proven elite strikers that could be negotiated for with varying outlay. Then you have Lacazette/Benteke/Icardi as potential stars. I really hope we manage to get one of the four established names mentioned because we’ve missed a true talisman since RVP left. In those few years we’ve improved in other aspects (DM, star quality in Ozil/Alexis, Solid GK) but we still lack an unquestionably class Striker.
@NGIH
Like I said before, Henry is saying what he has to say to keep his pundit job…
Instead of anything Giroud has proven Henry right that he’s not good enough,after what Henry said he’s gone 7 straight games without scoring a single goal,we need a striker who’s better!
@Dee@ease
Strikers have dry spells. It happens to all of them.
yeah but he has more dry spells than wet ones
OT:
Fans short memory:
couple of days ago all are not in favor of walcott, and now after his hattrick (against very weak WB) walcott is a wc player bla bla bla ….
Walcott to stay with the same salary, ok no complain because his presence did not justify any pay rise and if not then I would be happy to use the money we get and go for Sterling …
Please… Fans were divided.
Some fans actually realised:
A. It was an ACL injury he’s recovering from.
B. He hadn’t played in over a year.
C. His performances were so limited it’s not worth drawing any conclusions from, including WBA game.
Others judged him on about 2 hours of football after a year on the sidelines….
Walcott’s about to enter his prime. If you think he’s going to sign on with no pay-rise you’re as deluded as your user name is silly…
If you are in the sideline for more than a year while we are waiting for you to recover, you don’t come twisting arms asking for pay rise …
That’s true. This thing about always wanting a pay rise is a negative influence on the rest of the players. He does not do more than they do, he’s not even anywhere close to being a world-class player.
F**k it, guys! Like I said once, twice or several other times, we could pay actual worldcalss players 100k and get the exact value for our money, even more value.
Yeah show the rest of the team that after a year on the sidelines a player who’s been at the club for 10 years and is Arsenal through and through doesn’t deserve a fitting wage for the prime of his career. That makes sense!! Can’t think of a good message that would send to our other players… (Sarcasm, Loyalty obviously!!)
People were whinging and moaning when we put him on 100k but then he banged in 20 goals and 10 assists the following season and proved to be worth every cent. Doubt we would’ve remained a CL club without his stellar season in the wake of our captain and star’s betrayal. Can be an extremely frustrating player, but his productivity is criminally under-rated. Exactly what we’ve sorely missed this season. Another dangerous, scoring threat.
It’s not about that. It’s about the fact that he is probably about to commit the next 2-4 years of his playing career to us which will most likely be his prime or a fair portion of it. You can simplify it as a ‘pay-rise’ but that’s simply not how the game works.
This sterling for Theo talk is absolute nonsense. We have creators and dribblers galore. What we lack is proven scorers, which Theo is.
Hate to burst your bubble but he won’t be leaving any time soon as Wenger clearly rates him very, very highly. He’ll be here next season with an increased contract.
I got no bubble to burst, I have no problem with him staying with the same salary … To his quality (not mentioning his injury record which is a big deal) he should be thankful to get the same salary for another 2-4 yrs …
RVP had a similar injury and scoring record prior to his final season and a half with us. How did the majority of fans react to him not being offered a contract sooner?? When seasons prior the majority were calling for him to be sold and labelling him the ‘man of glass’….
Suppose we go by your logic and tell him he doesn’t deserve a raise as he’s been injured. Please explain what possible motivation he could have for extending his contract with us when he’s already on the same wage??
Then next season he re-finds the devastating form he’s capable of and City and Chelsea start throwing around 200k+ contracts as he’s English which they’re short on and he leaves on a free.
I’m betting you’d change your tune and join in with the rest of the fans calling for Wenger’s head as we didn’t offer him a contract sooner!!!!
And yet all this could be prevented by offering a player who’s been at the club nearly a decade an extra 20-30k a week……
oh no Henry its pure..O.G is not good enough…Walcott if far better a finisher…but i would rather we stick to him than buy a benzema..
fans…get realistic for once…benzema has been at real since 2009—look at his stats..are they any better? scoring 22 goals from 46 games last season(with the assists he gets a real) shows he is not up there with the costas and the higuins not to mention suarez, zlatan, lucazzete and martinez
Benzema has a poor scoring ratio we don’t need him,he’s called world class just because he’s at Real Madrid but his record is similar to Giroud’s!
Oh, no!!! The Benz is good, bUt washed up at Real. What’s the name of that other guy whose name often comes up here??? Is it Lucozade or Lacazette or Le`gazette? Seen him a few times, he’s much younger.
Any true football fan knows that Arsenal do need a striker to add to what Giroud provides. That’s what TT was rightfully saying
“Need striker to add to what Giroud provides” and “need striker who take us to next level” are pretty different and I want the later …
Henry said Giroud is not good enough “He shouldn’t say that in public, I admit”, so he asked for someone better “not only different”
Giroud is very important to our beloved club. I have seen Him improve from this first season with us up till now…If Walcott stays fit next season’ He can play some games with Walcott since He offers something different from Him. All am saying is we’ll definitely need Giroud but we’ll do well with a goal-poacher or someone that offers something different in the striking department….
pundits are just being ridiculous, saying guff so as to be paid. Owen’s turned into a joke, he claimed that Liverpool would finish above arsenal and how we lacked quality and stupidly failing to see that the oops are so average. with the season ended, he should eat his words.
Itll be interesting next season to see if he still takes his swings in our direction or just give up the ghost and try pitting his club against spu as should be compared.
wenger still thinks giroud will become a wc striker like henry lolz!
arsenal won’t be with aprolific striker untill giroud’s retirement. am worried
Zlatan is coming!
Plz stop. You say that and it just feels like he’s coming to beat up someone.
SECOND COMING!
The word world class gets thrown around so much these day. People who have had 1 good season are being called world class. They are NOT worldclass until that prove themselves year in year out. Lacazette, Kane etc are not world class they have just had good seasons. I dont even think Costa is world class, he had a good season at athletico then he started well at Chelsea but once defenders got used to him he became average. Players like henry bergkamp, vanistelrooy, both ronaldos, messi. Even klose you might laugh but put the ball in the box and see what he does with it even at his age now. Clinic machines such as these are world class not one season wonders. Let’s see what kane, lacazette etc do over the next few yes before we jump the gun and give them a title they can’t claim
Years*
@StutsFlow
Thank You…
Now bring back AFOBE and let’s see him become WC…
@NY, u know if any special clause exists on getting Afobe back? That guy was banging in goals like a young man on viagara, then, “BOOOM”, Arsene sells him, cuz he’s not f***king French.
@kickassfan
I hope we did have some type of “buy back” clause for him. Dude is a monster and he’s English, yet failed to even get a look in the 1st squad after being with the club since he was 6 years old.
Let’s face the truth and say it even for once and accept it. O’henry is fantastically correct on his observations on Arsenal team. His first was a summary of event while his second is a comprenhensive diagnosis of Arsenal ailments that have stopped them to win the BPL again for a very long time now. Thiery O’henry has impressed me. Have we heard what Sir Alex Ferguson said of Chelsea dominating the Premier League for the next few years to come. He said Jose Mourinho has a settle team. Can we say this of the Boss for Arsenal? Arsenal doesn’t have a settle team for a long time now. All the Arsenal teams we have been seen of late are erratic and unrliable teams that have failed to win the BPL for long and have never won the UCL. The Boss has got to be more realistic and handle Arsenal more realistically next season by borrowing a leaf from the correct passion O’henry has shown for Arsenal. So that he can once again move Arsenal forward.
i know wc strikers are few in todays market but we can a good striker who can do the job for us.
but to be fair to giroud he has done a very good job to his standards but we deserve a better striker.
Henri was a star
+ played during
a great Arsenal era
surrounded by other brilliant players.
Henri’s teams won the EPL
went undefeated once.
They also made the ECL final.
Since then the team has gone a decade without a major trophy.
Its hard for a winner like Henri to get his head around a
side who struggle to be serious contenders.
Henri first said Arsenal needed a spine
and Giroud was not good enough.
Henri’s latest “explanation” mentions the lack of “support”.
Its only one small step now for Henri to say
apart from Koz Ozil and Sanchez the whole team is actually
full of mediocre inconsistent badly injury prone under achievers.
In truth Henri is saying WTF has happened to the Arsenal I knew.
Ozil has fantastic qualities even special some might say but he still should not be on that list you have with Kos and Sanchez. For me Monreal has had better season than Ozil, Coq too however how short. Sanchez has shown that he is a true worldy.. sure the lad has bettered Hazard in every way except being on title winning team. Kos, im sure glad that someone on sky recognises real defensive nous over che team tactics… Kos is a real topper.
Ozil we all know or weve heard how he is one of the best but are still waiting to see him consistently better opponents. You can blame the Arsenal runners but a Bergkamp would put the ball in an area where the players mind got made up for him.
I truly hope there is allot more to come from Ozil.
There will be. You can see his change in mentality since his return. He wants to be great and has the tools only a small handful of players have to be so.
Giroud is not the problem..Welbeck is! the lad has near zero skills and for the kind of money we shelled out for him I expected a lot more goals from the chap. he’s turning into a Balloteli! Giroud should stay and Welbeck to make space for a world class striker like j martinez or Lacazette.. :-/
Ahh no article would be complete without someone bashing a player. It’s his first season at the club. Chill out!
2me wlbeck is the most wasted 16m.
giroud shud b like 3rd choice seriousely if we want any thing at all
Yet, funnily enough we’re in consecutive F.A. Cup finals…
I think what Henry said the first time was what he meant. It is becoming increasingly difficult for people to say the truth in Arsenal. That is what happened when you accept the wrong thing as sine qua non, you become a liar.
I’m glad that Henry made this comment because some fans took him from being a hero to zero hopefully things can go back to norman now.
Just read through the comments. Wow.
Not saying that GIROUD is a good or bad striker, the problem with ARSENAL is not so much the players overall we have a good squad, the problem is ROTATION and TACTICS that come along with the first…..WENGER’s biggest flaw is that he sticks to his plan again and again does not play his players enough that is why most teams, at least those with Coaches that can read the game beat us or put a fierce resistance, most know ARSENAL game plan and prepare for it. That is why some among us would like to see a new Coach with fresh ideas and YES with the same team including GIROUD lesser teams with unknown players have made much more tha we have done in the past years.
Whether people felt bad or not, that’s secondary. Fact of the matter is that we need 1 prolific striker who can be first in line before Giroud. Walcott can be second/third striker as Wenger harps about.
People are getting King Henry all wrong ,i think what he meant was that arsenal looking at the 9 positions the only natural striker is Giroud and we all know he is not a 30+ goals a season player therefore i agree with the King .Giroud should a striker who plays matches against teams like Hull City .Therefore we really need a first choice striker who doesn’t disappear in major games vs teams like Chelsea (WE REALLY NEED TO END THIS MOURINHO ‘s UNDEFEATED RECORD ..its f**king killing me.)