[mutuko]

thierry henry interview
written by albert masnou
april 17 2008

ahead of barcelona's champions league semi against man utd next week, sport asked thierry henry for his thoughts on the game and about life in cataluña...

so, it's barcelona against manchester united in the champions league semi finals: are you happy to be meeting your old rivals again?
"i'm neither happy nor unhappy. I just think this is the team we're going to play in the semi final, and if we want to reach the final then we have to beat them. I think they will be two good games of football, though, because they have the same kind of approach to the game that we have."

how are you planning to stop what is perhaps the most free-flowing team in european football?
"i don't know, but middlesbrough and man city have both recently shown that it is possible. You have to play the right game on the right day, but you know how it is in the champions league; one bad day and you're gone. At the moment they're flying, but you never know in football - hopefully for us, they will have a bad day when we play them."

are you pleased with your own form for barcelona at the moment? you seem to be hitting the top notes again...
"you can't look at how you're performing individually at this stage of the season. What you can do is look at how the team is doing. We're closing the gap behind real madrid in the league, and we're in the race for the champions league. There's always room for improvement, and that means taking over from madrid at the top, but overall we're doing well. We've played more like a team recently - like a unit, everyone together - and that's important. I think we can really start to play well now."

you struggled when you first arrived in spain - why do you think that was?
"i had only just arrived, and i wanted to play more than anything else. Perhaps that was a mistake on my part. I knew i couldn't play but sometimes your heart - and the fact that you're wearing the barça shirt and playing in the camp nou for this club - makes you forget almost everything and just try to do your very best. All the same, you can't give it 100 per cent."

johan cruyff, no less, spoke out to defend you against criticism from the spanish media. That must have been pleasing...
"i don't know why he did that. Maybe he knew i was carrying an injury and knew something you journalists didn't. I was really surprised when he defended me in public, because i didn't know he was aware of my situation. I liked the fact that someone who knows the game and has been a great player himself recognised the effort i was making by playing with an injury - and i'm sure he must have carried a knock or two in some games as well. Any player who likes football admires cruyff. He was a real ball-player, touched by magic, extraordinary. He left his mark on his own generation in holland and then did the same at barcelona."

are you missing london, or are you too busy enjoying your new life in spain?
"everything's very good; the weather's always nice and you wake up to find the sun shining. And then you go training, and the sun's still shining."

but you must miss arsenal...
"of course i do."

what do you miss most about it?
"there isn't really one thing in particular i miss about arsenal - it's just everything. Until the day i die, i am sure i will always miss everything about arsenal, because when you play eight years at a club - and you have such a strong bond with the fans and the club as a whole - you are always going to miss it. I miss highbury, i miss the boss, i miss the changing room, the guys at the dressing room and at the training ground, going to the game... I miss everything that you just take for granted. Then, when you stop doing those things you're like: ‘oh!' so it's not one thing, it's just arsenal."

what differences have you found between playing for arsenal and then barcelona? has it taken you some time to get used to the changes?
"well, the crucial difference for me has been that i'm playing on the left for barcelona, whereas i played through the middle for arsenal. And, yeah, it will always take time to adjust to a change like that because i didn't play on the wing for more than eight years - so to find my balance again was very, very, very difficult. Also, it took time for me to get used to the pace of the game in spain. At arsenal, we used to have a style where you would move and then get the ball straight away. Here, you have to be more patient before you touch the ball. It takes time."

can you compare the intensity of playing in the premier league with that of simply playing for barcelona?
"no, because you get the feeling here that you're playing for a region, a country. That's how the fans make you feel, and what they demand from you in the street. They love barcelona and they make sure you know about it. Sometimes the fans aren't happy when you have a bad game, but when they see you in the street they tell you how much they believe in the club, and about the passion they have for it as an institution. It's something that's very dear to them, and that's moving for a player to hear."

what about certain reports in the spanish press that have hinted at conflicts within the dressing room?
"unfortunately, you do sometimes get people who want to stir up trouble and say there are problems in the dressing room. That's why i went to the press conference after our game against real zaragoza recently, just to make a few things clear. There haven't been any problems since i came here - i really haven't seen any at all. Everyone has a laugh together, and the atmosphere is great. In fact, it's pretty lively."

it must be pleasing for you to have recently rediscovered your scoring touch, after what had been by your standards a quiet start to the season....
"me and my goals are not important. The key is for the team to play well together. I'm not obsessed about goals; it doesn't matter whether they're beautiful or ugly and it doesn't matter who scores them, or who's playing well and who isn't. You just have to win - that's all that counts. And we need to keep it going."

you set very high standards for yourself. What does it take to make you happy with your performance?
"i always go home thinking about the things i did badly, but i've been like that ever since i was a kid. I'm never satisfied with what i've done - i always want more. At the end of a season, you can only really be happy if you've won something. I'm never that happy at the end of a game, though, even if i've just won the world cup final - it's just the way i was brought up."

most centre forwards like to choose the number nine shirt. You could have had almost any shirt you wanted, but for a long time - both at arsenal and now at barcelona - you've worn 14. Why?
"well my favourite number is actually 12, because that's what marco van basten wore and he was my childhood hero. I used to watch him from time to time with ajax, but it was at the 1988 european championships when i really started to admire him. He was on the sub's bench with the national team back then, and that's why he wore number 12. He was so good, though, that once he got on the pitch he was never left out again, and he just kept the shirt number. As for the number 14 shirt... Well, i started wearing it at arsenal. I wore 12 before, but when i arrived at arsenal that was christopher wreh's number. The chairman mr dein offered to take it off him and give it to me, but i didn't think that was right. The 14 shirt was free, so i took that. I didn't want to take a teammate's shirt from him."