Henry in trouble... changing Sponsor or Club?

By Parkboy
October 6 2005

Thierry Henry has postponed his long awaited talks with Arsenal who are anxious to get him to sign a new contract. Henry commented: "I want to concentrate on football rather than worry about contracts".

This has set alarm bells ringing around the hierarchy at Highbury who see the French international as their prime asset after loosing Vieira.

Barcelona have shown overwhelming interest in Thierry since last summer, even to the point that their forward Samuel Eto’o had been quoted in the press about being excited at the prospect of playing with the silky French finisher.

When Dein met Barca president Joan LaPorta in the summer, the issue of Henry is believed to have been raised, and only the £30m fee quoted cooled the Spanish clubs interest.

But the fact that the gunners contract is running down and is below 20 months, Arsenal have a much weakened bargaining position. Other top clubs alerted to the developments are Real Madrid and Chelsea, who have been keeping an eye on the Henry situation. Real Madrid could be possible suitors, but there are complications as Henry is a Nike sponsored player and Real an Adidas club.

Also for Chelsea, there are problems as Henry is seriously keen to play in La Liga and is an admirer of the beautiful football of Barcelona, the same which cannot be said of the blues. It has also been observed that Barcelona did not spend big during the summer and have been saving their money for a big deal in the next transfer window.

The headaches for Arsenal will only get bigger with Henry leaving as they will find it increasingly hard to fill the extra 20.000 seats available at the new stadium.

In this vein, the lack of any real success in Europe has also hurt the North London side as sponsors are questioning whether they have a real global brand or not.

Looking at the signals from player and the suitor club, I feel the deal is as good as done.

Goodbye Henry.

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