Thierry Henry is undoubtedly one of Arsenal’s most revered legends in the Wenger era, but his old boss is not very happy with some of his utterings since he became a pundit on the Sky Sports TV Channel. Le Prof seems especially miffed about Henry denigrating our new hero Olivier Giroud, who has recently turned into a goalscoring sensation since his recovery from injury late last year.
Giroud failed to find the back of the net against the new Champions Chelsea, and Henry bravely stuck his neck out and said that the Gunners could not become champions with Giroud as our leading centre-forward, which definitely annoyed Wenger. “I think he’s wrong,” Le Prof said in the Telegraph. “He’s paid for that. We know all the system now of the modern media, especially on TV. I know how it works. They push you to be controversial because they give you a lot of money.
“I can accept an opinion but the comment on Giroud was a bit more wrong, especially because I heard the same thing being said about Nicolas Anelka, about Thierry Henry himself and about Robin van Persie. And they all became world-class players themselves.”
Wenger certainly has a point. Surely Henry himself should be able to remember when he was a raw talent before he came to Arsenal? Before Wenger moulded him into our top goalscorer of all time Henry had scored just 23 goals in 121 games for Monaco and Juventus……
Short memory indeed…
King have no short memory, just that he’s spoiled by MONEY as wenger indicate.
Leave owen and the other douchebags to controversy Henry wouldnt be expected to dish it out to Gunners, when do you ever hear liv pundits really being highly critical of anything liv fail to do. Maybe Henry didnt realise i dont know but it was very unlike him and to make matters worse it (his comments) totally contradicted what he said of Giroud a week or two earlier – Giroud best in the league. Henry… get into coaching… asap.
Crappy talk from Wenger,Henry may not be the smartest pundit but he loves Arsenal and want good for it.
He said the truth,if Arsenal wants to really compete for the title,they need at least three new addition.
They need another striker,another DM and a another GK at the place of Checsny.
Giroud did well this year,pleased for him but don t compare him to Henry or Anelka,they turned good very young,Giroud is close to thirty and he is not a complete striker.He need good service to be able to score,some strikers create they own goals,Henry,Aguero,suarez,Lacazette.
Go get Lacazette.
I have watched Berahino,I wonder how good he would be in a good team.
So can you honestly say hand on heart swap Giroud out for Costa and che wouldnt have won league. I doubt that very much.
Wenger added: “What I know is Giroud works very hard for
the team and has fantastic mentality and if the team does
well it is down to him and, if on top of that he scores 20 or
more goals, he has done his job……thanks the comment I luv best….wenger knws wot his target man brings to the team
So many goals are scored in the league with balls in the air. OG is the best player in the league using his head. Not to mention all the possessions he wins from goal kicks in the middle of the pitch. He is also the best on the league playing with his back to goal which allows everyone on the team to enter the attack zone. Playing with a “target” is the way Arsenal play and most importantly practice. If we could find someone that can duplicate that and stay injury free which OG has for the most part then sure get the player. Guess what, he is not out there.
Giroud injury record is very good, particularly for an Arsenal player. He has only ever missed 95 days due to injury whilst at Arsenal, and 84 of those days were due to his fractured ankle this season. I think we can rely on him next season.
Thierry henry has gone maniac.he has got a long way to improve to become a good pundit.he doesn’t know what he is speaking.Good reply Wenger.COYG!
Henry was labelled boring after making such a fuss about Chircharito not thanking Ronaldo for his goal in the CL. Let’s face it, he’s not really the most entertaining pundit around, but I don’t think he’s boring. But anyways, Henry’s response was to try and be controversial. Easiest way to do that is to pick on your own team. Henry hasnt said anything majorly out of order, but his comments were still a bit harsh.
Fabregas over Alexis and then putting Özil on the bench to play him? Laughable really, need I say more?
Criticising Özil for only getting 2 assists in 8 games against top 4 sides? Well, the record for assists, from Henry himself in fact, is 20 in a season. Roughly 1 assist per 2 games, and maintaining that ratio is outstanding. 1 in every 3 is considered top quality if we’re honest, including all the Sunderlands and Newcastles out there. So 1 in 4 against the very top sides is actually half decent. Room for improvement of course but not really something to be criticised.
Then there’s the comment that really stirred some people up. Saying we won’t win the league with Giroud. Pre-Burnley, Henry was full of praise for Giroud, regurgitating his scoring record constantly. After being called boring he does the opposite just a couple of weeks later. I wonder what changed his mind… I
think we can win the league with Giroud. I don’t think he’ll carry us to a title, but which striker has done recently? Suarez almost did it with Liverpool, but they still fell short. Aguero hasn’t done it for City, despite being unquestionably world class. Costa this year wasn’t even Chelsea’s main man. You’re looking at RVP for United a couple years ago as the last example really, and that wasn’t really emphatic either. So really, it’s not a case of a striker having to carry a team to the title, more often it’s the team as a unit that wins the league. Would a top striker help our cause? Of course. But can we do it with Giroud? Yes. Giroud can get us 20-25 league goals a season if he’s kept fit and has good service. That’s plenty. Plus others like Alexis will score goals too. 17 starts and 14 goals this season. I think he could easily get 6 more in over double the number of starts.
The last thing we all want is for the fans to turn against Henry…
For someone who is idolized at Arsenal, he really should know better..
My advice to titi would be to stay away from the likes of Owen,carra and scholes!!
Those muppets really are messing with his head!
He should turn on United and Liverpool to return the favour to Scholes, Carragher and Owen. But Henry is a man of class, he shows respect to other clubs, so to him the only club he can criticise is Arsenal. But Henry will soon have to learn that as a pundit you can’t just criticise one team.
If the quote from Wenger is word exact then Wenger has spoken to henry and henry has blamed the producers. If that is a true assumption then that isn’t classy.
We turned on ian wright for far less. And wrighty loves arsenal down to his bare bones.
Henry was 100% right … we need a spine CB/DM/ST … yes Giroud is not good enough to win Epl or CL … someone like Suarez, Aguero, old van persie .etc …
Wenger won’t criticize his players but he has no rights to say about Henry “He’s paid for that”
You mean the sky sports producer? Maybe he should manage arsenal and you can be his assistant as you agree with your friend the sky producer so much.
Storm in a teacup !
Shock ….. Henry has opinions of his own , it’s his job !
Wenger wasn’t even upset with him as suggested above , he just disagreed !
Do I think giroud is top , top class ? …. Not so sure even though he isn’t far off the worlds elite , he’s been awesome this year and his stats are right up there , but I do think we need another top class forward.
As much as giroud has improved , Chelsea are now the bench mark , we need to find something to topple them , although we outplayed and out battled them last week , we still created nothing clear cut against them ! …. They could of dug in for the last week and we still wouldn’t of scored !
Giroud’s style is Terry’s bread and butter , no pace , likes a battle and not top, top class technically and it’s showed with no goals against Chelsea and a general lack of genuine goal scoring chances for arsenal for some time.
Sounds like I’m slaughtering giroud , I’m not …. I’m happy with him against 90% of the teams we come up against , I just think we need something different to get over the last , highest hurdle !
Just my opinion.
Actually the same style Giroud employs sent Chelsea out from UCL. Two headers, set pieces. You are mistaken.
I stand corrected then , as Chelsea lost ONE game in that fashion …..
I don’t know them , but I would love to see Chelsea’s stats over the whole year for goals conceded from set pieces !
My point was that giroud just doesn’t look a threat against Chelsea , that opinion isn’t going to change because David luis scored a header against Chelsea to knock them out of the champions league !
In general I think Chelsea’s defence would struggle more against pace than a target man , like I said just my opinion.
Champions league is a different ball game esp @ d knock out stage where they needed to score…they went all out against PSG and they conceded
I think Diego Costa presents as fairly compelling evidence that you do not need a lightening fast, tricky, “something out of nothing” striker to win the PL. He is a relative late-bloomer, does not have a very special career goals/game ratio (less than OG in fact), scores fairly straightforward goals, is very awkward to play against and works incredibly hard for the team all over the pitch. Sound like anyone we know?
Chelsea look for their magic and trickery from Hazard coming inside as a second striker and to assist and score on a regular basis. Have we got anyone like that……hang on a minute let me think.
For me the only question is whether OG can continue to score at the rate he has this year – frankly I have my doubts because I am naturally pessimistic – but if he can than then I fail to see the point in taking a punt to replace him with a big name that will come with big money and a big risk.
Henry’s comments were out of order.
You can’t win the league with Giroud? Well genius, we didn’t win it with RVP either! People are too short sighted.
In January, for the first time in a decade, Wenger completed his squad with the signing of Paulista. This is now the first time every position is covered. It is not even about quality of the first team anymore. It is about the quality of the squad. I can name two key positions that need better cover before we even get to Giroud. And even then, he is amazing this season so bettering him would mean going to a top 3-5 European side and forcing them to sell.
Welcome to the real world, Henry.
Hahaha that’s brilliant !
Having a pop at the clubs record scorer for a throw away comment and having the audacity to call others ‘short sighted’ !
Are we arsenal fans incapable of criticism ? ….. Or just the less intelligent ones ?
Intelligence would be the ability to separate the record goal scorer from the TV pundit. You don’t seem to be able to do that.
I didn’t say anything about the Henry that was a player for Arsenal. Stop being so sensitive.
It gets better !!!!
Surely , me overlooking our legends semi negative comments about arsenal as I realise “it’s his job !” …… as opposed to you having a go at him , claiming he’s “out of order” would suggest that you’re the one incapable of separating the player and the pundit ?
Got to give it to you pal , that intelligence is in full flow this morning !
Without getting into a row bud , he’s a pundit , he’s expected to give controversial opinions at times , don’t start slaughtering a legend , the only talking of that mans I care about happened on the green grass of highbury , let it go !!!
You seem confused.
His previous gem prior to the Giroud comment was criticising Hernandez for celebrating. Yes, the guy scored against his teams arch rivals in the end of a game and Henry could only pull that out.
You seem to be confused. You are not overlooking his comments because he is a pundit, you are doing so because he is a former Arsenal player.
Henry is basically a troll. That is the only way he was going to get noticed between Neville and Carragher.
Christ , i must be confused for u to write it twice !
In all honesty I’m confused with how many times you wrote ‘confused’ …..
Yeah I saw the Hernandez comment and didn’t care about that either !
…But I’m afraid you’re incorrect again , I’m not overlooking them because he was an arsenal player , I wouldn’t care one bit if carragher or Neville had made the statement tbh, I’m quite capable of forming my own opinion whilst accepting others.
I just found your contradictory comment about ‘short sighted’ people funny considering u are having a go at our record scorer over a comment he made last week ! Hahaha
‘I’m not overlooking them because he was an Arsenal player’
‘Our record goalscorer’ (said for the millionth time)
Hahahaha yeah right. Somebody is very confused (yeah count that one too).
You want to be on his jock strap even though he is anti arsenal now then fair enough. The rest of us can actually move on.
I agree with RvP. There is no “audacity” or wisdom in calling everyone “short-sighted” with the simple-minded stock pundit answer of spending big, starting again and replace half the team. The week before Coquelin was “Columbo” then after a 0-0 he needs benching/replacing. New CB and GK – Henry is only guessing and going with the flow in suggesting Gabriel and Ospina are not cut-out to be top class additions. It gets dafter too – yesterday he was asked who would win the league if the season started tomorrow and he said he heart said Arsenal. At least he had that half-wit Dwight Yorke next to him so didn’t look quite so stupid. Before the game he said he expected Man Utd to win the league next season – after the game it was back to the drawing board and spend big (again). Just simpleton tumbleweed opinions being blown around.
Let’s not condemn Thierry O’nenry too much for his negative Sky Sports punditry on Olivier Giroud performance in our home game against Chelsea. To me, O’nenry has said what he thinks of Giroud as a failure to score a goal in that epic game at the time he pundited for his Sky Sports punditry. I think I cannot totally fault Giroud’s failure to score in that game. But a bit. Because the boss did not allow him to finish the game as he was brought off for Welbeck. Who knew whether Giroud might have scored had he finished the game. So, totally blaming Giroud as a sole failure is a little bit harsh. Besides, he can’t even be made the sole scapegoat in that game. All the Gunners save Ospina are the scapegoats for our winningless outcomes in that game as none of them was able to score a goal for Arsenal that Sunday evening. Which ofcourse is not only the preserves of Giroud. Nevertheless, Giroud is still on 18 goals in all competitions so far. Starting with our away game to Hull, Giroud should score at least 4 goals in the remaining 6 Arsenal games of the season to equal his total 22 goals in all competitions of last season.
Yes Rvp,henry and anelka were never world class when they joined arsenal but the three had one thing in common, and that is the age(joined arsenal at the young age).giroud joined arsenal at 26 and i dont think he will ever reach the numbers the did because he had time to improve them because of their age.other than age, they were speedy.
To be fair Thierry Henry
was a decent footballer.
8 seasons for Arsenal
Won 2 Premierships with Arsenal.
Scored 174 goals for Arsenal
nearly 50 more than 2nd man Ian Wright.
Captained Arsenal took the side to the ECL final.
He was in the French world cup winning squad of 1998.
Also played in France, Spain Italy and in the states.
The bloke knows a thing or two about the game on the field
Sometimes it is hard for the very great players to understand the
limitations of others. Bergkamp is another.
Perhaps that’s why they are not managers like Arsene ?
A bit off with the goals there mate.
Henry 228
Wright 185
Premier league goals for Arsenal.
Wright
Gms 191 Gls 104 =.54
Henry
Gms 254 Gls 174 =.68
I think football has shown us that there is just about zero correlation between playing status/ability and management ability. There is no reason to believe that Henry would be any better a manager than Tony Adams.
We all love giroud but there game s where we need a cf which is speedy when facing teams that place their hopes on defence like chelsea which is not his game because he does not contribute nothing.if wenger still places his hope on giroud next season im afraid we will be in trouble.what we need during the transfer is a young cf who wont demand game time but willing to improve fast someone like leccazete the french kid, now that should be our target
I think Henry needs to sharpen his memory. When we were up against Barcelona in the CL final in 2006 I remember Henry missing a number of chances which would have made Arsenal European champions but who called him names? It is not in good taste to criticise a fellow player for even a missed opportunity because it is not intentional. That same game of 2006 I remember the person who bailed us out was not a striker but Sol Campbell, a defender! Did anyone hold it against our forwards? Human nature is funny! When people retire from a job or graduate from school they behave as if they were the best in everything. Nobody would question Henry’s ability or his record at Arsenal but there were also times when he was off colour as is expected of all human beings. The old saying goes that nobody is perfect. Hence Henry should stop playing ‘holier than thou’ tactics because they are unfair to some people.
If indeed Henry wants to justify his job as a pundit he should apply objectivity rather than playing to the gallery. I have on several occasions cited Gary Neville as an example of a good pundit because he says it as he sees fit and not to please others! In fact Neville has become such a good pundit that unless one knew which club he was playing for before one would be at a loss to link him to any club. This is what Henry needs to do to win over objective minded people and those with analytical minds. Overtime we have learnt that luck plays a big part in winning games. How else can you explain Van Persie’s failure to convert a penalty against West Brom on Saturday? Similarly how do you explain Chelsea’s scoring of a penalty which the Crystal Palace keeper had earlier saved? All this points to luck. How would anyone describe the numerous injuries suffered by Arsenal at the beginning of the season and why has Chelsea not suffered any serious injuries until lately when they were already far ahead of their rivals? So a multitude of factors combine to make a team win or lose competitions. I am convinced that Arsenal’s time to be injury free will also eventually come. Never say never!
When Henry came to Arsenal he was still young & Giroud is 28 & he is still a decent striker while Henry was a god. Mr Wenger is notoriously stubborn after the criticism about Giroud from Henry I fear he won’t buy a world class striker so he can persist with his Giroud obsession. And in the interview he said Sa-na-goals was coming back God save us.
Thats why Wenger wont win us the league anymore….he hasnt got the hunger. We have finally got financial power, why does he rule out signing world class players? Henry was right. We are four players away from winning the damn thing.
So just the “four world class players” eh? Half the PL would be in with a shout of winning it with 4 world class players in their 1st team. So if we rip up this team, spend £150M, and United, City, Pool and Chelsea all do the same then we are nailed on winners? Wenger hasn’t ruled out anything to anybody – just taken the not unusual step of step of sticking up for one of his players.
People forget so easily that Pundits are humans who are susceptible to misjudgements like everyone of us. He has given his own opinion which may be right, depending on how you perceive it. Truth be told, many on this site have said worse. Let’s be liberal please.
We all know Wenger, he signed Ozil when we needed Suarez, signed Sanchez when we needed an out & out striker; both have done well though but that doesn’t eliminate need for a lethal striker.
Giroud is good but not good enough to win us EPL, that’s Henry is saying; and am afraid he makes all the sense in the world, buy Lacazette to compete with Giroud upfront.
Lol we are truly deluded to think giroud will win us the epl sorry he is in wonderful form and a top player but look at the world elites look at Suarez,lewandowski, benzema,aguero, zlatan,costa those are world class striker that win games and all better than giroud smh same pathetic mistakes every years jose won said it he would win the league after his first season and last summer he went and got his players and now wenger keeps defending average players see why we become a average team but still a big club though
And what has Benzema won for Madrid if not for CR7? Pls let us appreciate what we have a dad’s m you much as they are attempting to improve. How many Suarez can you find in game now and e’er which club is ready to throw is best to the market. Let’s pretend we want to sell Giroud I can bet it that the noisy Mou will be ready to swap with Costa.
And what has Benzema won for Madrid if not for CR7? Pls let us appreciate what we have as much as they are attempting to improve their records every season . However, how many Suarez can be found in the game now and which of the clubs is ready to throw its best to the market. Let’s pretend we want to sell Giroud I can bet it that even the noisy Mou will be ready to swap him for Costa.