The end of an era...

Song of the day:

Starsailor
"Get Out While You Can"

It's a sad day for us Gooners.

A day when surprises and shocks rushed into our minds.

Not many Gooners expected this to happen, me included.

I've been without broadband connection at home for days so I've to return to the office to online.

On a sunny Saturday, I was having a pretty good mood and brought my laptop together with me to the office to online.

After connecting my computer to broadband (in my office), MSN launched automatically and a window popped up on my screen.

I wondered what it was as it took a few seconds to load it.

"A MSN chat window... who could it be?"

It was Sanderson, my Arsenal pal in England whom I chat a lot.

As I read the message, I felt a rush of anger, frustration and confuse running through my veins.

It's weird.

"Henry leaving Arsenal for Barca..."

Oh God. Is it for real? I asked myself.

I switched on Mozilla firefox and click on "newsnow.co.uk", the live feed site which is my daily "necessity".

To my horror, the whole page consisted of news about Henry leaving.

Tears began to fall down... Such is an evidence of how vital Henry is to Arsenal and the fans.

It was a sad day that even before that, I was convinced by Sanderson that he'll not leave but it wasn't meant to be like that.

Thierry Henry...

My memory started to accomodate him after I start watching Arsenal in season 2003/04.

What a great season to start watching the Gunners. Or maybe not because of the high expectations for the following seasons.

Thierry Henry wasn't the guy who pulled me to watch Arsenal.

It was always Dennis Bergkamp (whose name is similar to Beckham of the then Man Untied midfielder) who acted as the pulling factor for me.

So, my first game was at City of Manchester Stadium, against Man City.

Anyway, in the first few Arsenal games I watched, Henry didn't impress me much. Maybe I was ignorant of the fact that I'm still a rookie fan who knew little football.

But as time goes by, I learned a lot about attacking football.

The one-twos, the through ball, the crossing, the volley, the passing... Many.

Henry began to fill my life.

So as football controlled part of my life, I began to watch more Arsenal games and luckily for me, I witnessed a lot of Henry's brilliant moments.

The most memorable one was against Liverpool at Highbury.

Never a doubt of the quality of Thierry Henry. Hattrick against Liverpool after much disappointment.

And he was an absolute integral part of the Invincibles squad of 2003/04.

After the departure of Vieira, Henry was announced as the new Arsenal captain.

However, things didn't seem to go Henry's way and even prompted him to reconsider his future at Arsenal.

With his contract not solved, Barcelona were sniffing around him and were always gonna pounce on the French international.

What shocked Henry was that Arsenal were cruising towards the final of the Champions League 2004/05.

Arsenal opponents?

Barcelona.

How ironic can that be??!

Arsenal played them but lost 2-1 with 10 men. It wasn't a shame for Arsenal. It was in fact an over-achievement for a young squad.

Henry thought like wise too. Due to that, Henry signed an 4 year extension at Arsenal, and said "I saw nothing special that night" about Barcelona.

Ya, it was true Barca won because of a one man advantage. Nothing more.

Nevertheless, Henry's stay wasn't gonna be that smooth anymore.

The World Cup damaged Henry's body, thus decreasing Henry's involvment at the Emirates Stadium.

His injury in the first half of the season was frustrating him a great deal. Why?

He has slowly becoming big-headed and thought he's the superstar of the team. He began to gain media attention so that he won't disappear in the eyes of the world.

The Ade-Henry dance was one significant proof.

I don't know much about the dressing room situation but Wenger seems to think that Henry's ego is starting to affect the team in a negative way.

I read on tribalfootball (I know it's an unreliable source) that Real Madrid were offered Henry in the January transfer windows of 2006/07 and this further proves my point.

It doesn't take tonnes of genius to figure the situation out and maybe Henry was preparing to leave Arsenal earlier than we thought.

And only last few weeks, Henry kept saying "At the moment I'm an Arsenal player" and this doesn't diffuse the situation.

A footballing genius like Henry is not that stupid to know it.

It seems inevitable that a football legend like him wants to move.

So, Arsenal.com interviewed him for the last time and the usual excuse of him leaving was "Dein left, Wenger might leave, so I leave".

It's a very bad reason to be honest, trying to act as the good person.

Nevertheless, he has been a great servant to the Arsenal.

He has won many matches for us. He has brought us tonnes of joy. He's a real modern day legend after Dennis Bergkamp.

I would love to give a 100% dedication to him but I still think he doesn't deserve it like Dennis Bergkamp had.

Anyway, I won't mourn the loss of Thierry Henry knowing the fact that his departure will do good in the dressing room.

I will look forward to seeing good youngsters who're willing to work for Arsenal.

Till then, enjoy Henry's top 50 goals in the clip below.

Henry = The Arsenal Legend!