Arsene Wenger has hailed Thierry Henry as one of the greatest players he has ever seen and joked that after years of enjoyment on the pitch it’s time for him to suffer on the touchline as a coach.
Speaking in the week that his compatriot has called time on his 20-year playing career, Wenger told his pre-Liverpool press conference:
“I would say he has had a massive career. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for what he has done for the club and what a huge success he has been for us.
“He was an exceptional football player, but as well a combination of a modern player, huge physical talent, technical talent, but as well special intelligence. He was not a contact player as so much as a typical centre forward.
“He was more a guy who used his intelligence to get away from people and his pace. He was one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a few good ones.”
Quizzed about Henry starting a career in the dugout, Wenger then quipped, “He has enjoyed it [his playing days]. It’s time to suffer for him.
“Coaching is of course enjoyable but it is as well suffering. He will see that it’s not easy to get everybody to score the goals he scored.”
Arsene didn’t give any hints whether Henry would be starting his coaching badges in the near future or whether he’d be undertaking them with the help of Arsenal.
suffering whilst make 8 million a year.
Oh do change the record, old boy. It gets tiresome.
Seriously though, Wenger hasn’t changed his record in while. Has he signed a strapping defensive midfielder since Gilberto Silva? No he hasn’t. Don’t be brainwashed with yearly false optimism. We’ll be in the top year year after year, for what it’s worth. I personally would like for us to win more than 1 proper trophy in 9 years.
I’d like for us to win the champions league every year. Unfortunately we don’t have the right to have what we want.
This is technically true, Arteta isn’t quite what Gilberto was but still a damn good option. Hayden reminds me a lot of Gilberto actually, the long legs and positional sense anyway, no idea if Hayden can play the ukelele.
Also, congratulation as you’re the first one I’ve seen to bring out the much anticipated sequel to ‘no trophy in 9 years’. I expected it to be Adrian Durham , so kudos on beating him to it.
Look, I’ve been an Arsenal fan for 30 years so I’m not just some reactionary half-fan. I’m also not suggesting we have a right to win the Champions League, no one does. What I’m saying is that as fans we have to be realistic and not change our opinions after each match. If you think that our team has anywhere near the contrast between power and technique that we had with Vieira, Henry and co then you are vastly mistaken. Those players are out there, it’s just we seem to be investing in a certain type of player. We are… Read more »
There was this guy playing for Chile during the World Cup, pace, power and an eye for goal much like Henry had, why didn’t we look at him? Also, there was this Welsh guy playing in the Premiership last year, he had the ability to defend well but broke forward with power, control and had a knack of arriving into the box for goals. We should look at him too. We have the players (aside from needing another defender) they just show their glass chin a bit too much, that’s a psychoogical problem so pining for the fact that nobody… Read more »
Christ man, we’re 6th in the table and unless Chelsea and Citeh totally screw up we’re going to end up either 3rd or 4th regardless of Alexis, but that’s with our best 11 on the pitch and hope no fucker else gets crippled. You’re missing the point. Listen to Hayley and Vince man, same shit every year, Wenger, judge us in May. We’ve been doing that every year. Unless our glaring weaknesses are resolved we won’t be consistent enough to best the top teams.
Yes, we’ll end up 3rd. Behind the two teams with blank chequebooks. I really don’t think I’m missing the point, it’s just that everything you’re bitching about is not the problem imo. We were close to being real competitors for the title last season, until we capitulated against the top teams BECAUSE OF OUR PYSCHOLOGICAL ISSUES. I hate to capitalise it but I feel that’s the best way to emphasise WHY we’re doing badly, not just bitching about the fact that it’s happening. The ONLY problem wth personnel is not having another CB. Nothing will change if we bring in… Read more »
You are right personnel is part of the problem. You are even right that there was psychological weakness causing us to lose or grip on the league, but you have to look at the reason behind the weak mentality. It boils down to the lack of foresight of the manager or his stubborn methodology. Manchester united challenged for titles year in year out with average players because of the manager. He did not accept anything but wins – losing was never an option. With Wenger it is an option. The difference between the two is wanting to win which everyone… Read more »
I’m under no illusions. I have issues with many of Wenger’s actions, as do most gooners, but bringing up his salary again and again, when it’s something we all know already, is so bloody boring.
Its actually £8.5m
An when we do win, that 1 will change to 2 in your dross
well i personally would like arsenal fans to keep some perspective and note that the vast majority of clubs in the world would be jealous of our record. seriously, what other clubs would not want to trade places with us? maybe city, chelski, man.u, psg, barca, madrid, bayern, dortmund, and juve? so we’re top ten among clubs in the world and this isn’t sufficient for you to stop complaining. additionally, i’m *sure* you were one of the people complaining about not having won a trophy for however many years, and then as soon as we won a trophy, instead of… Read more »
I didn’t. I complained about not winning the league, not some mickey mouse tournament. The title is the benchmark, everything else is crap.
You’re gonna have quite the miserable life with that attitude then
Lmfao!!! He certainly would be miserable. What a cranky soul. All other trophies are crap you say? Including the FA Cup, damn dude, you really should be a fan of the Orcs from Stoke instead. Lol.
LOL, I’m not miserable, just frustrated at not doing what we have the resources to do. ‘Crap’ might be too strong a word, but its not all that great either in the grand scheme of things. The trophies which matter are the Premier league and the Champions League. We have shown we are not ready to take the step up and do what needs to be done to at least challenge. All I want from us is to challenge for these competitions every year. I do not think this is too much to ask. Is it realistic to win? Maybe… Read more »
The Sun, and YouGov, conducted a poll of Arsenal fans and concluded that the majority are not in the Wenger Out camp.
Why are they so f*cking loud, and get so much press, when it’s only a small fraction of the fan base?
(paywall): http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/6196438/Wenger-The-fans-verdict.html
(free): http://ladyarse.co.uk/2014/12/yougov-survey-shows-majority-want-arsene-wenger-stay/
I prefer to listen to those singing at home to Newcastle, ticket price paying Gooners, not keyboard warriors who think it would be great to have a chequebook manager.
But you are spot on, they make SO much noise, and I love the way they always say they speak for the true fans…….
If money is your goal – you will never make money
People pay people who suffer for their art.
Wenger has done more for the club than any single person ever. Show some damn respect.
He dies everytime we lose.
I dunno.
Banks seem to do pretty well out of it.
Some records are so true they don’t need changing.
I’m a big fan of Wenger and I think he’s the man for the job. But suffering? No.
The unemployed are suffering, and the employed in most cases: nurses, teachers, and more or less anyone else working for parasitic scum or government targets.
There is no problem with having perspective. Modern football is INSANE.
What Wenger means is the suffering he goes through when someone misses an open goal in a vital game, makes schoolboy errors while defending , an official getting a call wrong. If you were paid 8 million pounds, don’t tell me you won’t pull your hair in frustration seeing the comedy defending at Stoke as an Arsenal fan. There are some things money can’t buy.
These type of comments drive me up the wall. Football mangers are under a huge amount of pressure. I know that at the end of the day its ‘just a game’, just 22 blokes kicking an inflated bit of plastic around. I know that there are more important people in the world whose actions have serious or meaningful consequences and that this is just football. But in reality, rightly or wrongly, for millions and millions of people all across the world Arsene doing his job well or poorly is decisive in their very happiness. The burden of the pressure, the… Read more »
It was just a lighthearted remark – in context.
But this has become like a 12 year old girl playing Bieber on repeat.
Financial suffering and emotional suffering can and do exist independently of one another. Nuance.
I think you’re taking his comments out of context, I’m sure He didn’t mean managing a club is the hardest life in the world. He just meant compared to being an outstanding player.
I dunno what people see when they watch tv, but I thought that Wenger has clearly aged visibly in the past 3-4 years, which were fraught. So I really dunno what kind of hatred there has to be of someone to make the bleeding obvious so hard to spot. I actually wept as we were presented with the FA CUP esp when he lifted it – you could see a burden had been lifted. I didn’t weep for me I wept for him. Everyone gets obsessed by his salary. 8mill a year doesn’t guarantee he’ll care more nor does it… Read more »
It annoys me when people say it’s not a stressful job just because it’s not life and death stuff. That’s not how stress works; if it we’re there would be very few nervous breakdowns. It’s like saying to someone with a bad migraine ‘at least it isn’t a brain tumour, you should count yourself lucky’. A migraine is still a fucking pain. Arsene isn’t dodging Taliban bullets or performing open heart surgery, no, but by all accounts he works bloody hard and gets criticism from all corners (some justified, a lot not, but still stressful for someone to have to… Read more »
While generating around 50 million a year by being an amazing player you tool
Wenger doesn’t do it for the money, money is just the professional reward for his service. I work in wildlife conservation, but just because I would rather get paid a million more and work in wildlife conservation doesn’t make me financially motivated. I would rather have ice cream and work in wildlife conservation, which doesn’t make me ice cream motivated.
And I agree. I’m not saying Wenger is the problem. I love the man and was as happy as anyone with the FA cup win last year. I know it was a light-hearted comment. But as fans I think we have a secondary responsibility, instead of simply cow-towing to the line that a job in football is so hard the people we love (and love to hate) deserve the inflated pay they receive. Arsene does a good job, but so do the hundreds of cleaners at the Emirates who continue to be paid under the London living wage. Chelsea pay… Read more »
Well, when you start going into whether people deserve the pay they get then you’re going to end up going around in circles, pretty much nobody does. I think it’s just something you have to accept, it’s like the people railing aginst how awful the 1% at the top are and how it should all change, when if there is money there WILL be people with more of it than others. Best to save your ire for shit like corruption and largescale subjugation and discrimination than something like economic inequality. Also, thanks for the image of someone towing a cow… Read more »
Arsene gets paid?? I thought he did it for the love of Arsenal.
GRRRR, What a bastard, I’m so outraged I’m writing to the Daily Mail!!!
😉
In the pantheon of Arsenal Greats – Henry will forever bask directly in the benevolence and supreme class of Bergkamp.
Lets hope he gets his badges and with Denis, they finish what Wenger started – building the greatest and most successful club in the world
A king does not suffer. A king makes. Others suffer like spurs and chelshit. King titi
A king does not suffer himself to suffer
If I had a pound for every time Chelsea suffered because of us during the second half of the Wenger era, I’d be piss poor.
That 5-3 at stamford Bridge was pretty nice. Terry falling over and Walcott being Walcott.
There is very little better in the world than watching John Terry fall on his face. When it’s followed by an Arsenal goal 10 seconds later it becomes very hard to top indeed.
If you had a pound for every time we suffered because of Chelsea you’d still be pretty poor as we only play them twice a year.
How much money Wenger could have earned had he had left Arsenal 10 years ago. £8 million a year is relative to what is been paid out there now a days. Plus having brought in more money as his investments in players (rightly or wrongly) almost always paid off in terms of return on investment.
King Henry.
Not only the king fits into the name Henry but there is something kingish for lack of words about the way he plays.
Do not touch me kind of attack.
Somehow it seems defenders are scared of tackling him.
Simply ( though I know it’s not) steps into opponents boxes and scores.
Imitating the action of a tiger?
What, Eboue?
Henry would be the perfect successor to Arsene Wenger as would Dennis Bergkamp. Henry needs to get those badges under his belt asap and gain some experience too. Wow, that would be a massive result for the Gunners, imo.
People accusing the WOB of being the tired old broken record is a bit hypocritical, everyone has a right to be positive or negative; just because you’re the good ol’ Le optimiste where everyday is bright and sunny (the sun can be a bit tiring too you know if you get it like 365 days a year in a tropical country) doesn’t mean you have a right to shit all over those who see it the other way around. You have your reasons to be positive, we have our reasons to be negative, you mock us after every petty little… Read more »
Oh shut up. A few arseholes who clearly dont get it…are trying to steal the show with their melodramatics. They can go fuck themselves. You want to be a negative nancy? Go ahead but you will not stop me and the majority from respecting and cheering for our great manager and all hes done for us and continues to do. Those who are anti can give away their tickets instead of being drunk drama queens ‘demanding’ change…. Weve heard your opinions and guess what….we dont agree. Can you lot live with that or will you bust our balls with your… Read more »
If Wenger is really doing it for the money he would have buggered off to RM or PSG long time ago. He still got some unfinished business with Arsenal and he seems determined enough to see it through. No matter what some says he is still the best fit for arsenal.
What I don’t think people are understanding is the context of the word “suffering” in his statement.
Frankly it’s more about when the student becomes the teacher and suddenly realizes the crap the teacher has to put up with. AFAIK that’s what Arsene was referencing.