Within a year Thierry Henry has gone from vital cog in Barcelona’s well-oiled Champions League-winning machine to barely-used squad player. Three goals in his 16 league appearances this season is a paltry return for a man boasting such a prolific past record and is indicative of the French forward’s sharp decline in stature over the past 12 months. This has not gone unnoticed by Henry’s international manager, Raymond Domenech, who this week gave a TV interview stating that ‘Titi’ is still not certain of a trip to South Africa in June.
“When we have so many injuries and players who are not playing right now, it's not reassuring. If I have to do the squad list today, how do I do it?” Domenech recently asked in L’Équipe. “There is only one rule: the player who isn't ready on May 18 won't be kept.”
Perhaps this warning should be taken with a pinch, if not a ladleful, of salt, as the largely reviled Domenech also threatened to shoot his players if they failed to check their egos at the door and unify their talents under his uniquely oblique authority. Nonetheless, it does pull into sharp focus the current predicament of Henry, who, lest we forget, confirmed his team’s passage into finals by virtue of an infamous one-man game of pat-a-cake-pat-a-cake deep in the Irish penalty area Henry hand article.
Those who would delight in his absence on ‘moral’ grounds, have had the waters muddied by the increasing acceptance of Henry’s actions among the footballing fraternity – everyone from Frank Lampard to several of the Irish players involved that night has owned up that, if roles were reversed, they’d probably have done the same. Henry’s harshest critics, as is their wont, have been the French sporting public. Their frequent booing of the man who played such a prominent role in the country’s successes at their own World Cup and Euro 2000 has soured further the acrid atmosphere during Les Bleus’ recent lacklustre home performances. Yet, crucially, he retains the unstinting support of his teammates.
So the case for Henry’s exclusion can only be made solely on footballing grounds.
Aside from his uncharacteristically meagre goal tally, beyond all dispute is the fact that the 32-year-old’s once-searing acceleration has diminished significantly of late. This was made all the more apparent by the electrifying impact of his erstwhile Arsenal team-mate Theo Walcott (yet to figure out how best to harness his abundant talents) during the absorbing Champions League quarter-final ties between Henry’s past and present clubs. Henry did not feature in Barça’s home leg footballing exhibition, following criticism from the Catalan press of his supposedly over-milked reception at the Emirates a week previously. He then sat out El Clasico completely; dropped from Pep Guardiola’s squad for the make-or-break Primera División clash.
Guardiola clearly has plenty of options to call upon to play alongside Messi and Ibrahimović in preference to his ageing striker – Bojan Krkić, Andrés Iniesta, Pedro, even the versatile Dani Alves. Come season’s end – with presidential elections leading inevitably to a new wave of signings which could include luminaries such as Franck Ribéry, David Villa or Benfica’s sublimely gifted winger Ángel Di María – Henry will most likely be on his way.
MLS franchise New York Red Bulls would be delighted if they could lure such a globally-renowned name as Henry’s to join the likes of ex-Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel and Notts County’s Brummie pocket-rocket Luke Rodgers in a squad comprised of never-made-its and has-beens. The ambitious outfit have long been linked too with Real Madrid’s Raúl – another infrequently-used star at a Spanish giant, who has not represented his country since being ruthlessly dumped (to good effect) by Luis Aragones. Such a move for Henry, though, would surely spell the beginning of the end of an illustrious, award-laden career.
David Beckham’s stateside defection came erroneously early – the decision taken at a time when he was out of favour in Madrid, yet not an entirely spent force (as his Serie A spells have proven). Henry, however, has so much based the effectiveness of his game on speed – primarily of movement, but also of thought – and is less likely to forge such a mid-30s comeback, given his persistent back troubles.
That established, the big question facing Domenech is whether he should effectively draw the curtain on Henry’s top-level career in the most dramatic and, arguably, unreasonably premature manner. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that one of the most notoriously idiosyncratic coaches of modern times could omit an out-of-form superstar from his World Cup plans, given his clear disregard for public opinion and the lack of accountability arising from his guaranteed departure from his role after the finals. Certainly, there are compelling alternatives.
Djibril Cissé will win few awards for the consistency of his finishing, but is enjoying a new lease of life in Athens this year; Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka, though goal-shy in recent months, is a certainty; Sidney Govou is a reliable – and versatile – squad member who is fancied to join either Sevilla or Roma when his contract at Lyon expires this summer; temperamental winger Hatem Ben Arfa, of Marseille, is a livewire who can be deployed across the front-line; one-time Arsenal target Loïc Rémy has topped the Ligue 1 scoring charts for most of the season in a modest Nice side; Louis Saha, André-Pierre Gignac, Karim Benzema, Jimmy Briand (recently returned from long-term injury) and others are all also in the chase for a place on the plane.
But unlike his old friend Patrick Vieira, the only other player remaining in the French squad from their 1998 apogee, Thierry Henry is not a totally busted flush. Any semblance of form – should he be given the opportunity during Barça’s La Liga run-in – will likely be rewarded with selection. It is, perhaps, a little too early to turn out one of France’s favourite footballing sons; even Domenech admits: “I always have faith in great players and Titi is a great player”. But should that be ‘is’ or ‘was’?
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