Ideas & Debate

Lessons top football legend Thierry Henry offers firms

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Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry celebrates after scoring a goal at the Emirates Stadium in 2012. PHOTO | AFP

It just occurred to me that the year may yet come to an end before I pen anything Arsenal FC related. For those readers who followed the humble beginnings of this column two-and-a-half years ago, they may remember that I had this habit then of seeking football lessons for business with Arsenal being a key inspiration.

The team then seemed to bustle with an element of promise and one could attempt publicly associating himself with it without risking public ridicule.

Unfortunately, those expectations were sooner than later converted to frustrations as season after season produced a barren trophy cabinet. The team’s recent performance has at times had nothing to write home about (pun fully intended).

Unfortunately, nothing has changed and the promise of this season looks as bleak as always. My column today, therefore, is inspired, not by the current Arsenal side but the Arsenal of the past — over a decade ago in fact — towards the turn of the century when the team enjoyed what has turned out to be its most glorious spell so far.

One man who played a key role in that magnificent era and earned the right to be termed by that most outstanding of adjective-nouns, ‘legend’ is none other than the French football wizard Thierry Henry.

Early this week, the 37-year-old announced his retirement from playing football to take the stage in full time punditry as he joined the Sky Sports team.

As a man whose fame and success was built primarily at Highbury, the Arsenal stadium in North London, his departure from the football scene struck an emotional chord with many Arsenal fans many of whom view him, perhaps rightly so, as the greatest player to ever grace the English Premier League (EPL).

Today, I dedicate this column to the footballing life of the Arsenal legend and the lessons we can all learn from his experience in the beautiful game.

Lesson one: Good wine takes time to brew. Henry was only 13 in 1990 when the French team Monaco sent scout Arnold Catalano to watch him play in a match. He scored all six goals as his side won 6-0.

Catalano asked him to join Monaco without even attending a trial first. Catalano requested that Henry completes a course at the elite Clairefontaine academy before he joined Arsène Wenger’s Monaco as a youth player.

Subsequently, Henry signed up with Monaco, and made his professional debut on August 31, 1994.

Although Wenger suspected that Henry should be deployed as a striker, he put him on the left wing because he believed that his pace, natural ball control and skill would be more effective against full-backs than centre-backs.

That said, his tenure at Monaco, could be defined only as an average success. In his five seasons with the French club, the young winger scored 20 league goals in 105 appearances.

Henry left Monaco in January 1999, and moved to Italian Serie A club Juventus for £10.5 million. He was a flop at his new club as he failed to adapt to playing on the wing against the Serie A defensive discipline.

Unsettled in Italy, Henry transferred from Juventus on August 3, 1999 to Arsenal for an estimated fee of £11 million, reuniting with his former manager Wenger.

Unfortunately, his poor run of form continued into his new club. After several difficult months in England, Henry even conceded that he had to “be re-taught everything about the art of striking”.

Luckily, Wenger’s faith in Henry meant that those doubts were quickly dispelled as he ended his first season at Arsenal with an impressive goal tally of 26.

Arsenal finished second in the EPL behind Manchester United, and lost in the UEFA Cup Final against Turkish side Galatasaray that season.

The signing proved to be a masterstroke as Henry ended up being the highest goal scorer of the club of all time. Before he joined Arsenal, he had only scored a measly 31 goals in a total of 160 club games — a return of only 0.19 goals per game.

During his eight-year stint at Arsenal, he scored a massive 228 goals and 93 assists in only 376 appearances.

It is clear from Henry’s example that success is a product of patience and persistence. He took close to a decade playing from 1990 to 1999 before he got his scoring boots aligning themselves. The good, old wisdom it seems remains steadfast; good things take time.

Lesson two: Loyalty breeds royalty. The year is 2012, five years after Henry had left Arsenal for Barcelona and now playing for the American MLS side New York Red Bulls.

He trains with Arsenal during the MLS off-season, and on January 6, 2012, Henry re-signs for the club on a two-month loan deal.

Three days later, Monday January 9 and Arsenal are hosting Leeds United in the third round of the FA Cup at the new Emirates stadium. Henry knows just how much he is valued at the club with a bronze statute in the stadium a testament to this fact.

He is on the substitute bench and this simple fact has motivated the spirits of the Emirates faithful who start chanting the striker’s name from the onset of the match.

As usual though, Arsenal gives a dazzling midfield display but with poor finishing to end the first half at a nil draw. After the break, fans are screaming for Wenger to bring on Henry.

The forever stubborn Wenger waits all the way till the 68th minute before he gives in to the fans’ demands. The FA Cup tie is in the balance and we’re 20 minutes from a replay. Arsenal need to find a goal if they don’t want a trip to Elland Road.

After 78 minutes it’s still a goalless draw. Then Alex Song picks out the Arsenal legend from the middle of the field as he hovers around the right flank of the Leeds keeper.

Henry controls the ball in what is virtually his first proper touch of the ball, he then calmly sends it into the left corner of the Leeds goal with the coolness and precision we know so well. The score: 1-0 to the Gunners. Emirates goes crazy.

“I played in some big games for Arsenal, Barcelona, France, Juventus, Monaco… but nothing will ever top that night [against Leeds] for me,” Henry said recently when asked about his best goal of his career.

For Arsenal fans, winning the FA Cup after eight long years of waiting is not the biggest thing to happen in 2014. But Henry retiring from playing football is. He gave the club his loyalty and now the club accords him full royalty in return.

My dear readers, this is my last column for this year. I wish you happy holidays.

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