Finally, the Great One Hangs up the Boots...salute the GREAT THIERRY HENRY

You have to love him. The man. The footballer. The perfectionist. Henry was UNLIKE any player that the Premiership had seen. Starting off from being a winger, and evolving into one of the most technically gifted and smartest strikers of the modern generation. Just like Ronaldo did in the 90's, Henry REDEFINED how the "boring" role of a striker was to be played.

Henry played for France, Juventus, Barcelona and so forth...but there is no argument that when anyone thinks of Arsenal, one of the FIRST names that come up is the Theory of Henry. Any Arsenal fan will tell you, unless they were smoking weed previously, that without doubt, VA VA VOOM was Arsenal's greatest ever player.

Arsenal will NEVER have the kind of invincible season they had, ever again, nor will many teams ever. And Henry was one of the key gems in that historic season. It was Thierry at his might, whose EVERY touch turned to gold and lead the line amongst what was the perfect Wenger team. Why Wenger thinks that the crop he has are like the invincibles...is beyond me, but that's another discussion.

But this is not about Wenger or Arsenal or the Premiership, this is about Henry. It's about looking back at his career and seeing just how he will be remembered and just where he stands amongst the elite.

The four horsemen is an exclusive club that is pretty much impossible to get into. Henry falls pretty short of that group, which is no insult because those are four of THE greatest specimens that planet Earth has seen. They dominated both on club and international level and changed the sport GLOBALLY and had a wide-spanning cultural impact. That's some heavy stuff that not a lot of footballers can do or will ever do.

If we focus on club football, Henry just missed out on the Champions League and that chance he had may haunt him for a long time. He said he was not feeling completely right, but was Ronaldo really at his physical best in 2002 after that knee injury? Sometimes you need that inner core to take OVER for you.

But that was a small blip. When you look at the Premiership titles, the FA Cup titles, he has them all. BUT I AM NOT A MAN OF STATS AND MEDALS (apart from the damn World Cup). That is all well and good, but the reason why Henry is close to my heart, is because of how he was as a player and the kinds of things that he did with the ball.

We live in a world with bricks galore. It is quite insulting and unfortunate at the amount of crap players I have the displeasure to watch. To be honest, watching the Premiership now, there really isn't that one player I try and watch or look forward to. Sorry, but Rooney is not that pleasing on the eye. The Okocha, Bergkamp, Juninho, Cantona are just no longer in the Premiership. And Henry, it will be a long time till the Premiership witnesses a player who did SO MANY incredible things and produced so many MOMENTS in matches like he did.

What makes Henry such an interesting player to chart, is his metamorphosis that I alluded to at the start. It was amazing to see a very fast and direct, but limited winger get turned into a striker, and finally into a complete footballer that defined the way a group of ten guys played.

This is where you have to really bring in Wenger. For some reason, Arsene saw something in Thierry that nobody else saw. Back in 1998 and 2000, I just saw a really quick player, and for me, that is of no use. But Wenger worked on him, and unlike Walcott, Henry responded and developed his game. He began to think more, and only use his speed when needed. What we saw was a footballer that had greater awareness but also saw more benefit in respecting the complex art of this great discipline rather than rely on physical attributes. He was able to read a situation and pull from an array of technical skills, which to employ at that given moment. So little effort physically was needed, because it was all in the mind, and THAT is where great football is played.

But I am not one to gush over like everyone else will, whenever a really good sportsman retires. What stops Henry from really knocking on the door of the guestroom for the four horsemen where Dinho, Bergkamp and Okocha are chilling, is the fact that he never brought his Arsenal groove into the French team. He just was never the same player.

Maybe, some would say, if Wenger was coach of France, then that team could have probably beaten Italy in that World Cup Final with Henry playing at his very peak. Remember, 2006 was when Thierry lead Arsenal to the Champions League final. But these are ifs and and if onlys....he just never got it done for France....


But I think it would be best to leave y'all with what I believe was Thierry's best ever goal and encapsulated what he was about as a footballer in mind and body.

THIS IS THIERRY, AND WE THANK YOU FOR MOMENTS LIKE THESE....

HH