Thierry Henry: not getting any youngerWhat's that going over the hill? It's Thierry Henry apparently. Arsene Wenger reportedly studied "physiological statistics and read-outs" and came to the conclusion that the French forward was now past it. An Arsenal insider told the Daily: "Arsene was given the statistics, hard and fast figures, about Thierry's performance levels. "If he'd wanted to keep Henry, he would have remained. But the stats suggested his performance levels were drifting away pretty rapidly."The decision to let Thierry Henry join Barcelona for £16m was another in line with Wenger's policy of cashing in on top stars such as Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira when he believes they are on the downward slope. Wenger always knew there was something special about Henry, having first linked up with him at Monaco.
However, even the Arsenal boss could not have foreseen the impact Henry would make after he arrived at Highbury in August 1999 for £10.5 million - which was considered something of a gamble for the then out-of-sorts Juventus winger. After failing to find the net in his first 10 games for the Gunners, Henry would go on to become both the club record scorer and also their most influential player of all time.