Thierry Henry hit a lull. For the first time this season — perhaps — this slender, sleek purr of a player lost his flow. He had been asked a simple question, to describe Arsenal’s season in three words, and he had responded with a striker’s instinct. Straight away he pounced: ”Dominating,” he said. ”Injury” followed immediately.
But then there was a pause and, as he stroked his chin, the pause became a silence. English and French vocabularies scuttled around his mind. Finally he said: ”Lost it. Lost it is two words. But, yeah, lost it.”
A small depression had developed. Sensing it, Henry insisted: ”There is no anticlimax. At the end you have to give credit to Manchester United. They did well to come back and we didn’t do enough to keep our lead. But life goes on. We have had worse seasons. We are still in the FA Cup and we were competing for the title. Maybe everyone was expecting us to retain the title but we didn’t. Now we must come back even stronger. That’s one of the things about a winner’s mentality — you won’t accept it. You have to say to the others ‘Well done’ but you don’t have to accept it.”
It was a stream-of-consciousness response; the interview was about 90 seconds old. More of the same was to come.
”When you lose key players at such a time, obviously it is massive,” he said, listing Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell, Lauren and Freddie Ljungberg. ”Sometimes you can … dig in for one or two games. But this was for quite a lot and at that time of the season when you need those players. I am not looking for excuses, all I’m saying is that it does change things a bit.”
Henry was reflecting on an Arsenal season that began in bright sunshine and victory against Birmingham City last August, on the weekend of his 25th birthday. The highs since then have been tremendous and until mid-March Arsenal were threatening an entire continent. Then came Valencia, then came the mind wander in Bolton and then came Leeds United at Highbury.
Arsène Wenger said last week that ”something disappeared” from his players after Valencia, but Henry was adamant about where Arsenal’s season bottomed out.
”Bolton, no doubt about it,” he said. ”The game against Bolton was exactly what I said about our season. We were dominating. Injuries. Lost it.
”That’s the thing that made the difference last season: when we were not on [form on] our day we were still winning. We did manage to do that at the beginning of this season — I remember we drew at West Ham, they could have been three or four-nil up. David [Seaman] saved a penalty and we came back to 2-2 from nowhere. I don’t know how. At West Brom we were shocking but we won 2-1. That’s important.
”But at the end — even worse — we were on top of a team and we were conceding goals. It is about character. When you can pass the ball as we can, that’s normal. But when you don’t, when it’s not as easy as normal, you have to force yourself somewhere else, you have to do it mentally.”
He was speaking at the Arsenal training ground prior to the match at Sunderland. A few feet away players were being measured for their Cup final suits. Later that week in London Henry collected a second footballer of the year award. Superficially things are prosperous.
Yet suddenly all Arsenal threatens is Southampton. It is not enough. These are delicate times at Arsenal; places such as Valencia and Bolton have left the club at a crossroads.
As Henry spoke, the day’s editions of L’Equipe were landing on the streets of north London. L’Equipe’s cover recently featured a picture of Patrick Vieira beneath a headline that read: ”What future for Vieira?” Inside Vieira spoke of his frustrated passion at watching the recent Real Madrid-Juventus match. The article mentioned that David Trezeguet was persistently talking up Juventus to Vieira.
Then there were Robert Pires’s comments about his personal commitment being dependent on Arsenal’s future recruitment. ”Unhelpful,” said Wenger.
But the biggest issue of all at Arsenal is Ashburton Grove, venue of their proposed €400-million home. Henry has two seasons left on his contract. The new ground will not be open until 2006 at the earliest. Unless Henry signs another contract, the debate over Ashburton Grove and the diverting of funds there should not affect him. But to progress as a Champions League force in particular, Wenger needs that finance for players. Put simplistically, the choice is big team or big stadium.
”I do get that sense,” Henry said. ”But big teams play in big stadiums. You have people here to deal with it. All we have to do is wait. I love Arsenal … and I would like to help, but the only way I can help is on the pitch. I can understand why people are saying that — but big teams play in big stadiums.”
He was reluctant to go further on the subject of club infrastructure, yet these Arsenal decisions will surely have an impact on his life and career.
”On my life? Absolutely not,” he said. ”On my career? I’m a loyal guy. Whatever happens I will respect it. Because, as I always say, the team, the fans, the club, they gave me a hand when I left Juventus and I was a bit down. I can never forget that.
‘Listen to me, right now my mind is focused on Arsenal and there is nothing else. I don’t see anything else. I can’t put myself where I’ll be in five or six years’ time. For us players all these kind of questions are difficult because we don’t know exactly what’s going on. I don’t like to talk about things I don’t control. But I understand what you’re saying, that if a player sees that things don’t change, he might leave.”
That was not really the implication of the question; it was about whether he had a strong preference for Ashburton Grove or for constructing a team at Highbury in the next two to three seasons that could sustain an attempt on the European Cup and Manchester United’s domestic omnipotence.
”Who wouldn’t like to have the best team in the world, and who wouldn’t like to have the best stadium in the world? That’s the thing, but it’s difficult to make a choice.
”It’s smallish but I still like Highbury; still 38 000 people and I really, really like Highbury. There is an atmosphere, a special atmosphere. Anyone who plays there in the league will say that, because of the history of the club … It’s a pretty ground but in terms of capacity it is maybe not Man U.”
That Highbury likes Henry is something of an understatement. He has been consistently excellent for three years now, the pinnacle of a side who have made neutrals swoon at times. This season, performances at Leeds and PSV Eindhoven stand out: ”We played some football there, yeah. We played some football at Leeds. People kept on saying to us ‘on our day’.”
Henry deserves his days and his awards. Ruud van Nistelrooy, no less, said: ”To play in partnership with Thierry Henry would be amazing. If we were a duo it would be fantastic. With his pace and vision, his scoring ability and his ability to let others play well, it would be fantastic to play with him.”
Henry appreciates such insight. Although he finished the season one goal behind Van Nistelrooy in premiership goals — 24 to 25 —
he emphasised his goal assists this season — 23.
”I’m not only a goalscorer. Sometimes people put me in the same league as [Michael] Owen or Van Nistelrooy but I’m not at all like this type. I’m not trying to be better than Ruud, but the one thing I was pleased with this season was the goals I gave.
”People always see the goals and for me strikers are not only about scoring goals. Before the Southampton game [Arsenal won 6-1 and Henry did not score] I said to myself it would be quite nice to catch Van Nistelrooy. But in the game I found myself setting up other people. I am not greedy but I could have been greedy in that game. It’s quite important for me to respect the game.”
Where Henry is concerned, respect is due. —