Greatest Ever Gunner: Thierry Henry: Any Arguments?

Just watched today's Arsenal friendly match against Barnet. The commentator was saying how when Thierry Henry played against them a few years ago, the Barnet players were told to back off and try not to injure him... and that just reminded me how much I miss the biggest superstar Arsenal FC has ever had. 

The Arsenal website had been collecting votes from fans (mainly Arsenal fans I suppose) this summer, and used the results to put together a list of the top 50 ever Arsenal players.

Now for those who haven't visited the site before, here are the results:

1. Thierry Henry
2. Dennis Bergkamp
3. Tony Adams
4. Ian Wright
5. Patrick Vieira
6. Robert Pires
7. David Seaman
8. Liam Brady
9. Charlie George
10. Pat Jennings
11. Freddie Ljungberg
12. Marc Overmars
13. Kanu
14. David O'Leary
15. Sol Campbell
16. David Rocastle
17. Pat Rice
18. Cliff Bastin
19. Ray Parlour
20. Martin Keown
21. Lee Dixon
22. Emmanuel Petit
23. Brian Talbot
24. John Radford
25. Ashley Cole
26. Paul Merson
27. Alan Smith
28. Charlie Nicholas
29. Nicolas Anelka
30. Frank McLintock
31. Ted Drake
32. Nigel Winterburn
33. Sylvain Wiltord
34. Danny Clapton
35. Sammy Nelson
36. Kenny Sansom
37. Michael Thomas
38. Steve Williams
39. Bob Wilson
40. George Armstrong
41. George Eastham
42. George Graham
43. Andy Ducat
44. Malcolm Macdonald
45. Alan Ball
46. Alex James
47. Frank Stapleton
48. Tony Woodcock
49. David Jack
50. Peter Storey

Any surprises? My footballing idols and heroes are Dennis Bergkamp, Ronaldo and Zidane and they are all my greatest ever seen full stop (my generation... still 22 years old...) But somwhow I find it difficult to argue against Henry being voted as the number one. And here is why.

He is the greatest goalscorer of the football club. 369 appearances, 230 goals and 82 assists. That means he played a key part in AT LEAST 312 goals that Arsenal have scored in his 369 appearances.

It is quite a phenomenal record, I would be surprised if anyone have better stats than that in European football. Some are great scorers, or scorers of great goals, or great goal makers. Henry was all of them combined.

He was close to winning the most prestigous individual prizes twice, and I think many believe he should have at least won once. No Arsenal player has ever reached the fame he has reached, nor the records he has broken. Statistically speaking, he was the best of the best.

Now I believe that at least 50%, maybe 60% of football fans are glory hunters. No joke, especially outside of Europe. This makes having a global superstar in your team extremely important, and Henry is the only one who has given us that.

He was in the commercials, contracted to Nike, massive posters of him everywhere and stuff. Obviously there was Freddie with his CK's, but Henry was like the Gunners' Beckham. Earning revenue for the club even when he is not kicking a ball. I have friends who are not interested in football and live in Hong Kong, and the only Arsenal player they know is, unsurprisingly, Thierry Henry.

I am saying all this to just let every Arsenal fan reminisce about his greatness. He was not at his best last season at Barca, (I thought Wenger taught everyone that Henry should play up front, not on the wing...), but he still ended up being their top-scorer (19 Goals).

I really feel that if Henry has one more great season, likely to be at Barca, he will be remembered as the greatest striker in this decade. Ronaldo was best in 1990-2000. Henry can be for 2000-2010.

But Henry has to prove that he can do it in another club as well, like Ronaldo has for like every club he has played for bar AC Milan. I hope he does, because to me, it is the least he deserves.

Henry might have gone, but he is most certainly not forgotten, he might have been the only world superstar Arsenal have had, but wait a minute... Cesc is arriving...