Yesterday Thierry Henry finally decided to comment on the various, albeit hugely numerous, reports linking him with Aston Villa as news of our new owners and the takeover broke in the press.
Despite having Steve Bruce in as manager at the point, even he admitted he wasn’t sure what was going on given the firestorm of reporting we all saw taking place and he had to concede himself, new owners often have their own thoughts when it comes to the managerial spot and that it would be their prerogative if they canned him and brought in their own man.
Plenty of Villa fans welcomed the news of a fresh broom given Henry’s own kudos, others were flat out against appointing an unproven manager in our situation. Others called the reports out for what they were given the titles they first appeared in – I myself comment somewhere that it was strange Sky were so quiet given Henry’s association with them, and let’s face it, even as the Camera of modern day Football, they aren’t against inventing or rehashing clear dog poop if they feel there are clicks to be found in it.
Henry has now denied having any contact with Villa whatsoever and also contact with other clubs, given once Villa became a title the press couldn’t use they started replacing us with others as they continued the clickbait.
My first response was Henry would’ve gone up further in my estimation had he posted the following immediately and as he was linked. If only out of professional respect for fans of the game and as a nod of respect to a bloke who has had a horrific time of it of late on a personal level – and a man Henry, in fact, wants to call a fellow manager in the future.
I’m not saying it would’ve overly quelled the speculation as the press kept ramming it down our throats, whilst saying absolutely nothing they hadn’t claimed previously as they couldn’t be bothered to invent something fresh, but I can at least have some respect for managers who when linked with another club answer ‘There’s been no contact, they have a manager, I’m not discussing it further.’
https://twitter.com/ThierryHenry/status/1024971400761815040
https://twitter.com/ThierryHenry/status/1024971499755773952
My second thought is cue excitable fans who now take the delay in the Arsenal legend saying this as proof that talks were in fact held, but for whatever reason Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens or even Henry himself, decided that the time wasn’t right to make a managerial switch and we’ll come back to it in January.
As a third, if you really want one – simply put, how can I be the first to claim this in January if we’re not top of the league as those clickies are important in the modern world!
