Henry retires - and signs up with Sky as pundit

Gits_bone

kryogen wrote: »

Does it realy need explaining that he did not play with them for his entire Arsenal career?

Luminaries such as Cygan, Alliadiere, Senderos, Reyes, a consistently injured Van Persie, Pennant, Hoyte did their bit of course, but it was very much left to Henry to drag them with him.

I suppose you'll say Keane carried Utd so seeing as they had Wes Brown/O Shea/Bellion/Silvestre/Fortune?

thebaz

all the greats are retiring - Henry, Giggs , Me (finally, regretfully hung up the boots at the start of the season - knee wrecked , now arthritic - retiring is a horrible feeling , really miss playing , but you can't stop age

kryogen

Billy86 wrote: »

He was their best player but 'carried on his back' is a bit much - From around 2001-04 Sol Campbell was probably the best CB in the world not named Nesta, Vieira was amongst the very, very best box-to-box midfielders out there, Dennis Bergkamp was getting up in years but still a complete genius, Pires was possibly the best wide midfielder in the world aside from Nedved (3 straight teams of the season, 01/02 FWA POTY) while Ljungerg on the right was also top class for a while (PFA POTY 01/02).

I didn't say he always carried them on his back though, I said he carried them for a long time.

Think about the period after the invincibles.

kryogen

Gits_bone wrote: »

I suppose you'll say Keane carried Utd so seeing as they had Wes Brown/O Shea/Bellion/Silvestre/Fortune?

Drove would be a better word.

Are you able to use anything other then who someone played with as a deciding factor in how important they were to the team? Without any sort of context given to that bull**** even?

To be even clearer, no Henry did not need to carry, Campbell, Viera, Cole etc

He did need to carry people after they left though didn't he? It actually got so bad that when he was leaving people were saying Arsenal would be better off as they relied on him too much and now others would have to step up and would be more expressive rather then just look for Henry and he will do the rest.

Billy86

fozz10 wrote: »

Im glad you think so. there opinion matters little to me so Im not missing anything. cant make years of disliking someone go away because they pretend to be nice guys on sky sports. I watch football to watch football,not listen to them say a red is a yellow, usually because he's english or some rubbish like that, why on earth would i care what any pundit thinks about a match? I watch it for the football not to hear someone elses opinion.

Except that's typically not what they talk about too often - yesterday Carragher had a very interesting breakdown on why Lovren is struggling at Liverpool with bad habits he had at Southampton that went unnoticed like leaving a lot of space between himself and the fullback and often looking over his shoulder to see where the other CB is, losing potential runners in the process. It's exactly what lead to Man Utd's first goal on the weekend, also.

I'm not mad on pundits in general, but I would far rather listen to those two than the old lads on RTE complaining that tactics being seen as important is "nonsense", that every player should be able to play 90 minutes 60+ times a year without a bother because players could do that 30+ years ago (when the pace of the game was much slower), giving out about players that flat out don't exist and calling teams with the best defensive record in South American WC qualifying "headless chickens" because they clearly had almost never (if ever) seen them play before.

CSF

Billy86 wrote: »

You've been missing out then since I'm guessing you haven't been watching since Carragher and Neville started doing punditry - both are very, very good. Sadlier on RTE is excellent, and despite being an oddball Kenny Cunningham tends to have a good insight, but the rest of them are absolutely awful.

Sadlier is so bad, IMO. Can't stand the man. Carragher head and shoulders above the rest but Neville is also worth a watch compared to what we've been used to in the years before them.

Cookiemunster

galwaylad14 wrote: »

I can dislike him if I want for whatever reason I want. And the fact he cheated our country out of a chance to go to a World Cup is a perfectly justifiable reason to dislike him in my opinion.

There's lots of footballers out there I like but he isn't one of them and never will be.

He didn't cheat us out of the world cup. We needed to score a second goal to win before and after the goal. If the game had remained 0-1 it would have gone to a penalty shoot out.

Plus if Robbie Keane had done it at the other end I bet you wouldn't be calling him a cheat.

Blatter

CSF wrote: »

Sadlier is so bad, IMO. Can't stand the man. Carragher head and shoulders above the rest but Neville is also worth a watch compared to what we've been used to in the years before them.

Carragher is quite good but Neville is clearly superior IMO. I feel he's showed Carragher up a few times in debates and I've rarely seen it the other way around.

Richard Hillman

Sky are the best in the business for punditory (The standard isnt very high though). I think that Thierry will make a good one as time goes by. Even Jamie Redknapp has grown to be a little bit snarky as time goes by. Nobody can sit on the fence forever.

Gits_bone

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Sky are the best in the business for punditory (The standard isnt very high though). I think that Thierry will make a good one as time goes by. Even Jamie Redknapp has grown to be a little bit snarky as time goes by. Nobody can sit on the fence forever.

State of Redknapp on MNF.

He should stick to the league of gentlemen.

Utopia Parkway

Had Sky on in work and was wondering why they had Henry on the screen all morning long. Knew he had retired but thought the coverage was a bit excessive. Then found out he had joined Sky and it all made sense.

extra gravy

mosstin wrote: »

They like the way he handles himself.

secman wrote: »

You have to hand to him..... very handy guy for sky to have as a pundit. A hands on type of guy.

splashthecash wrote: »

Yeah, I'd say he'll grab this opportunity with both hands...or at least one

Billy86

CSF wrote: »

Sadlier is so bad, IMO. Can't stand the man. Carragher head and shoulders above the rest but Neville is also worth a watch compared to what we've been used to in the years before them.

I don't see why? He wouldn't be as good as Carragher or Neville by some distance, but relative to what else RTE have to offer he is pretty damn good. At the WC he was far, far more informed on the teams and players at hand and he showed an actual understanding of the changes the game has undergone in the last 10-15 years, which basic and as much as a given as it would seem or should be,, in itself set him far apart from the others (barring Cunningham, who had also done his research from what I saw).

Hopefully Friedel doesn't move back to the US when he retires also, because he has been fantastic during the WC for a few channels and also afterwards, I think on BBC?

KingdomYid

As an Irishman and a Spurs fan I detest the man. Am totally pissed off he will be on Sky now, wish he would just feck off.

CSF

Billy86 wrote: »

I don't see why? He wouldn't be as good as Carragher or Neville by some distance, but relative to what else RTE have to offer he is pretty damn good. At the WC he was far, far more informed on the teams and players at hand and he showed an actual understanding of the changes the game has undergone in the last 10-15 years, which basic and as much as a given as it would seem or should be,, in itself set him far apart from the others (barring Cunningham, who had also done his research from what I saw).

Hopefully Friedel doesn't move back to the US when he retires also, because he has been fantastic during the WC for a few channels and also afterwards, I think on BBC?

I think comparing any pundit on knowledge to Brady, Dunphy and Giles is pretty much giving them a carte blanche.

Agreed on Friedel who was also far superior to Sadlier when on.

galwaylad14

Cookiemunster wrote: »

He didn't cheat us out of the world cup. We needed to score a second goal to win before and after the goal. If the game had remained 0-1 it would have gone to a penalty shoot out.

Plus if Robbie Keane had done it at the other end I bet you wouldn't be calling him a cheat.

I clearly said he cheated us out of a chance to go to the world cup. Which he did. We had a chance.

I hate when people say oh if Keane took his chance and if McShane hadn't let it bounce etc but that's not the point. Those games just happen in the course of a match, what shouldn't happen is a player to blatantly and outrageously cheat in the manner he did that night.

galwaylad14

Skylinehead wrote: »

You've elected not to mention in two of those seasons there were more games in the league (42 I think). And Henry did it 5 times, not once. Henry has the better goals per game record in England, by quite a distance (0.68 to 0.5). Better goalscorer my arse.

Look up both of their league goal records there like a good lad.

Lithium93_

One of the best strikers in the game retires, I wish him well as a pundit on Sky Sports.

And yes i'm Irish and NOT BITTER about Henry cheating the Irish out of a place at the 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP.

Billy86

galwaylad14 wrote: »

Look up both of their league goal records there like a good lad.

Looking at each of their best three years they are pretty much identical - Shearer had 0.82 goals per game compared to Henry's 0.81 goals per game, while Henry offered more to overall play, and the league was stronger overall in Henry's period (03-06) than Shearer's (93-96).

As for their whole career *Shearer had 243 league goals in 381 games (0.64 goals per game) to Henry's 174 in 254 (0.69 goals per game). So yes, Henry did have a higher GPG average.

In terms of sheer bulk, Henry over his career had more league goals than Shearer.... by one - 284 to 283.

*That's using 1993-2004 for Shearer, if you use his whole career his goals per game average drops considerably down to 0.51. I took his last two seasons and early years at Southampton out since Henry got to develop his game abroad at Monaco/Juve, then wound down a bit at Barca and especiall New York.

fryup

has he ever been in ireland?? ...since you know

maybe he should be invited over for a late late show interview, make interesting viewing

Wilberto

I have to be honest. I love the man. One of the greatest players to ever grace the Premier League. He's still one of my favourite players of all time, simply because of his magic on the pitch, as well as his demeanour off it. He just stikes me as a pure gentleman of the game. A class act.


I have no problems with the hand ball simply because, as another user put it already in this thread, if it was Robbie Keane keeping it in play with his hand to flick it across for Richard Dunne to score then we wouldn't really give a fcuk!

Anyway, I'll just sign off with this. Surprised it's the first one of the thread considering the legendary status of the man but there you go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzgs4bujiXg

ShooterSF

No respect for people who are happy to cheat to win. The guy has the same attitude as the likes of Lance Armstrong. Amazing talent sure but no integrity.
Interesting to have someone like that as a pundit though. Curious to see if he takes a consistent view to players diving while with Sky.

extra gravy

ShooterSF wrote: »

No respect for people who are happy to cheat to win. The guy has the same attitude as the likes of Lance Armstrong. Amazing talent sure but no integrity.
Interesting to have someone like that as a pundit though. Curious to see if he takes a consistent view to players diving while with Sky.

Yes because one handball is the same as sustained doping over several years :rolleyes:

lertsnim

KingdomYid wrote: »

As an Irishman and a Spurs fan I detest the man. Am totally pissed off he will be on Sky now, wish he would just feck off.

It always amuses me how someone in Ireland hates the local team that is a few hundred miles away.

K4t

lertsnim wrote: »

It always amuses me how someone in Ireland hates the local team that is a few hundred miles away.

These kinds of posts are far more amusing tbh.

PeteEd

I'm sure he will handle his new career rightly GAWA

Donnielighto

In terms of pundits I find Hamann very good to watch.

swoody

well he wont be doing any champions league punditry cause BT have the exclusive champions league and europa league rights from next season till 2018.

Minjor

Billy86 wrote: »

I don't see why? He wouldn't be as good as Carragher or Neville by some distance, but relative to what else RTE have to offer he is pretty damn good. At the WC he was far, far more informed on the teams and players at hand and he showed an actual understanding of the changes the game has undergone in the last 10-15 years, which basic and as much as a given as it would seem or should be,, in itself set him far apart from the others (barring Cunningham, who had also done his research from what I saw).

Hopefully Friedel doesn't move back to the US when he retires also, because he has been fantastic during the WC for a few channels and also afterwards, I think on BBC?

Friedel got a job with Fox Sports. I'd imagine this is his last year as a player.

Corholio

Fantastic player of course, but an awful pundit. Never thought Henry would be the one to point out the obvious but ****ing hell does he.

Friedel would have been so, so much better.

Kirby

swoody wrote: »

well he wont be doing any champions league punditry cause BT have the exclusive champions league and europa league rights from next season till 2018.

Exclusive? Are you sure about that? Sky aren't showing any of the games? I know they won the bid for a ton of games, but all of them?

I mean, it makes no difference to me as I have BT anyway but that doesn't sound right.

Blatter

Kirby wrote: »

Exclusive? Are you sure about that? Sky aren't showing any of the games? I know they won the bid for a ton of games, but all of them?

I mean, it makes no difference to me as I have BT anyway but that doesn't sound right.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/24879138

BT Sport has announced an exclusive £897m three-year deal to broadcast live Champions League and Europa League football matches.
The broadcaster has won the rights to show all 350 fixtures each season from 2015 after talks with European governing body Uefa.


A BT spokesman said it had "shaken up the UK TV market" and would make some matches, including finals, free to air.
The news is a major blow to Sky and ITV, which currently share the rights.

The news is a major blow to Sky and ITV, which currently share the rights.

It is quite surprising alright. No more CL on terrestrial TV in the UK for the next three years. Hopefully RTE and TV3 retain their rights over here, I assume they do.

The deal is worth an extra ~£14m to the CL clubs in the Prem which will kill off interest in the league/FA cup even more.

Great! someone on sky who will defend Wenger no matter what happens!

Spanish Johnny

It's a pity that the retirement of arguably the Premier Leagues greatest player is dominated by the handball against us and his merits as a pundit of which we have seen very little. Only time I saw him so far was last year on sky for champions league after the last group games. He said that night the one team that Arsenal needed to avoid above all else was Athletico Madrid....potential winners. Maybe people prefer drama and controversy to intelligence and thought. Time will tell.

As for the handball well I don't think anything encapsulates small time Irish mentality than a grudge over that. It's pathetic to be honest. Annoying yes but absolutely no different than diving for a penalty...and if we had done similar ourselves we would have been defending it alike. Didn't cost us qualification either. The game was still level and penalties beckoned. But again that gets thrown out in place of the hyperbole and ridiculous reactions.

Anyway a super player that had it all. Always felt when Henry was on the pitch something might happen even in a seemingly lost cause. A scorer of many goals and a scorer of great goals and also an assister of them as well.

Gits_bone

Spanish Johnny wrote: »

It's a pity that the retirement of arguably the Premier Leagues greatest player is dominated by the handball against us and his merits as a pundit of which we have seen very little. Only time I saw him so far was last year on sky for champions league after the last group games. He said that night the one team that Arsenal needed to avoid above all else was Athletico Madrid....potential winners. Maybe people prefer drama and controversy to intelligence and thought. Time will tell.

As for the handball well I don't think anything encapsulates small time Irish mentality than a grudge over that. It's pathetic to be honest. Annoying yes but absolutely no different than diving for a penalty...and if we had done similar ourselves we would have been defending it alike. Didn't cost us qualification either. The game was still level and penalties beckoned. But again that gets thrown out in place of the hyperbole and ridiculous reactions.

Anyway a super player that had it all. Always felt when Henry was on the pitch something might happen even in a seemingly lost cause. A scorer of many goals and a scorer of great goals and also an assister of them as well.

Turns out they needed to avoid Bayern too.

greendom

KingdomYid wrote: »

As an Irishman and a Spurs fan I detest the man. Am totally pissed off he will be on Sky now, wish he would just feck off.

I'm thanking this post because it gave me a good chuckle :D:D

greendom

Perhaps the Newstalk figure wasn't quite so far-fetched after all - eat that Neville!!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2876582/Thierry-Henry-routs-Gary-Neville-TV-pay-league-joining-Sky-Sports.html?ito=social-facebook

GBXI

galwaylad14 wrote: »

No that's not it at all I just think they're always harder to understand, think of Adebayor that time at the World Cup or even seedorf when he's on. They're just not as clear as native English speakers.

But I'd get past that. The fact he's a cheating bastard however I won't get past.

This attitude is awful sad. He is not a "cheating bastard" anymore than any other pro soccer player is. It's a bit past it's time, but if you want to continue to be upset about that incident, your anger should be directed at the inept officials who missed quite a clear, deliberate hand-ball.

Soccer players commit deliberate fouls in every game, and as I said, you'd want to be a very sad, and bitter individual to call them all cheaters.

Billy86

GBXI wrote: »

This attitude is awful sad. He is not a "cheating bastard" anymore than any other pro soccer player is. It's a bit past it's time, but if you want to continue to be upset about that incident, your anger should be directed at the inept officials who missed quite a clear, deliberate hand-ball.

Soccer players commit deliberate fouls in every game, and as I said, you'd want to be a very sad, and bitter individual to call them all cheaters.

I was mad at him for a long while after that, but as has been mentioned if Keane or Duff had done it at the other end a lot of the people still complaining would likely have been defending it almost immediately. What still irks me is FIFA though - their match report never mentioned handball (even called it a headed or chested pass, if I recall!) and after we had Blatter and Platini even trying to deny that a hand ball had occurred. On top of the whole last second 'seeding' process it was very, very fishy. Worst of all though was Delaney humiliating the whole country in what was little more than a blatant attempt at a cash grab on his own behalf.

sky88

Lucas Hood wrote: »

I don't think Shearer ever played in a team as good as the ones Henry played in, I think that has to count for something.

TBH I think that Henry was the best striker ever in the premier league, goals record and all round play beats shearer for me as just cause you have the most goals doesn't necessarily mean hes the best wayne rooney is going to be the top goalscorer for England but doesnt mean he was the best ever player for them.

SherlockWatson

http://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/holy-sht-thierry-henry-is-going-to-earn-a-serious-wedge-to-be-on-tv/6263

They say that Henry put pen to paper on a six-year, £4m a year deal. That's €5m a year to you and me.

In fact, that salary is actually an increase on his wages at New York Red Bulls, where he was on $5m a year, or €4m.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the entire story is that Sky's star man Gary Neville is on £1.2m (€1.5m) a year.

I'd be a bit peeved if I was Gary Neville.

NIMAN

Thank God I don't have $ky, don't think I could handle that much smugness.

A_Sober_Paddy

galwaylad14 wrote: »

I can dislike him if I want for whatever reason I want. And the fact he cheated our country out of a chance to go to a World Cup is a perfectly justifiable reason to dislike him in my opinion.

There's lots of footballers out there I like but he isn't one of them and never will be.

Or the fact he was cheating on his wife, on numerous occasions showed little class(a la that penalty routine) his diving, just his general demener, I think his a fairly horrible excuse of a human being... But a fine footballer

SherlockWatson

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

Or the fact he was cheating on his wife, on numerous occasions showed little class(a la that penalty routine) his diving, just his general demener, I think his a fairly horrible excuse of a human being... But a fine footballer

Ah jesus, you must think Johan Cruyff is classless as well, that penalty was funny, I wouldn't say he's classless for trying it.

Gits_bone

What an insight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXN_OEyZYCU

NOT. Boring and obvious.

GBXI

In terms of a pundit, he seems incredibly bland and un-insightful, sort of the opposite to what he was like on the pitch.

Speaking of pundits, there are very few good ones out there and Sky will kill a lot of them with their inane, over analysis. People are raving about Carragher and Neville - Neville is good in my opinion, but he's far from the amazing pundit he's made out to be. Carragher is awful to listen to and he is so far from a good analyst, man he talks some amount of rubbish.

Gits_bone

GBXI wrote: »

In terms of a pundit, he seems incredibly bland and un-insightful, sort of the opposite to what he was like on the pitch.

Speaking of pundits, there are very few good ones out there and Sky will kill a lot of them with their inane, over analysis. People are raving about Carragher and Neville - Neville is good in my opinion, but he's far from the amazing pundit he's made out to be. Carragher is awful to listen to and he is so far from a good analyst, man he talks some amount of rubbish.

Yeah it's because they analyse different stuff to the norm and have the fancy computers and speeding up and reversing and all that.

G Nev was giving 5 areas De Gea improved on. He showed one instance of one on ones then and now. Didn't show the time against Leicester this season when Vardy made him look silly.

StephenHendry

souness is the best pundit imo on sky, even on rte , id say on rte he was even better, neville is very good, i haven't heard henry as pundit but sky will hope he fits epecially as he is 4m/yr

Richard Hillman

GBXI wrote: »

In terms of a pundit, he seems incredibly bland and un-insightful, sort of the opposite to what he was like on the pitch.

Speaking of pundits, there are very few good ones out there and Sky will kill a lot of them with their inane, over analysis. People are raving about Carragher and Neville - Neville is good in my opinion, but he's far from the amazing pundit he's made out to be. Carragher is awful to listen to and he is so far from a good analyst, man he talks some amount of rubbish.

Over-analysis? That is the first time I have heard anybody be critical of over analysis. Football is incredibly under-analysed compared to other sports

Billy86

Gits_bone wrote: »

Yeah it's because they analyse different stuff to the norm and have the fancy computers and speeding up and reversing and all that.

G Nev was giving 5 areas De Gea improved on. He showed one instance of one on ones then and now. Didn't show the time against Leicester this season when Vardy made him look silly.

That's probably because using one single one-on-one all season to judge whether or not a keeper has made progress on them in general is a little silly in itself, to be fair. With the amount of time and space Vary had leading into that chance I doubt there's a keeper in the world who makes the save more than one-in-three times absolute max, it's not often a striker goes for the near post in that situation.