11Moments- Henry Is &#8216;GOD&#8217;(Part 9)

11Moments- Henry Is ‘GOD’(Part 9)

Posted by TheGooner | Posted in 11Moments | Posted on 03-10-2009

Tags: 11Moments, Thierry Henry

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The Conquerer

Its not everyday that you hear the commentator say:-

“I’ve seen most things in this league for the last 25 years. I haven’t seen anything like him. I said he was special. He’s more than that, he’s irreplacable.”

An 11Gunners tribute to a true legend called Thierry Henry. To ‘God‘ himself..

You didn’t think this series was going to get over without a special dedication to this special special player. The apotheosis of Thierry Henry to the platform of immortality may not be completely justifiable but ask a Gooner or any neutral for that matter who has watched Titi dawn the colours of Arsenal, we have our reasons for elevating the Frenchman to the level of Godliness. Football has been blessed with astounding players and will have many more in the future but to find a player who is revered as Henry is by Arsenal fans, it’ll be a Herculean asking.

On 18th October 2005, Henry stamped his name as the Greatest one to worn that red and white when he surpassed Ian Wright and beacme the club’s all time leading scorer. Ian Wright was during his own times an Arsenal legend. In the year 1997, he had overtaken Cliff Bastin’s record of 178 goals for the Gunners. At that time no one in their craziest imaginations could have imagined that the record wouldn’t last a decade even. But in the summer Arsene Wenger sold a promising Nicolas Anelka for a hitherto unkown French counterpart named Thierry Henry. People called it a terrible mistake, an error of judgement, today seriously I would like to meet those people.

From being a mercurial but largely incosistent teenage talent, Henry’s transformation began at Arsenal. After going goalless in his first eight games, the fans were losing some of their patience. But it indeed is a virtue for mankind as they would trade nothing for what was about to come from the Frenchman. He was a player who needed some moudling, some finishing touch an artist may say, and in Arsene Wenger he had just that. Henry still is and will always remain indebted to AW, he used to call him “The Boss” and the prodigy and the mentor shared a father-son relationship, the cornerstone of Arsenal’s tremendous success in the years to come.

When Henry began living up to his potential, he was our means he was our end. But one person who’ll disagree with this statement is the man himself. Modesty was his hallmark as he would always put the team before himself, it was quite apaprent during the league games. The commentators would often say “I wish Thierry would himself have taken that“, but that was never his attention. He set up Pires, Freddie and Bergkamp for an incalculable number of goals and yet he became our all time greatest goalscorer. Perhaps you now get the logic behing comparing him to the Almighty.

The day the master surpassed Ian Wright is a story in itself. The master wasn’t fully match fit and yet made the trip to Prague in a Group stage champions league encounter. He began on the bench and had to be brought in as an emergency substitute only because Jose Reyes suffered a knock in the middle of the game. Having been out for six weeks, you expect rustiness and some shakiness, well that’s mortals we are talking of again.

Six minutes after his arrival, he produced a masterpiece. An exquisite first touch, a quick turn and a shot from distance from the outside of his right foot. That put the master on level terms with Ian Wright. But he went one step further the same day. A swivel, a turn and a cool finish later, he had become our ‘All-Time Greatest Goalscorer‘.

A truly gratifying moment in the History of our club it was, Henry occupies such a special place in our hearts that I wouldn’t be surprised if some day in future the date of his arrival is celebrated as ‘Thierry Henry Day‘! He was the ‘King of Highbury‘ and shall forever remain our ‘GOD‘.