Thierry Henry feels Arsenal's underachievement last season
was down to relying on young players. The striker, in Beijing on a
promotional tour for sporting goods manufacturer Reebok, contrasted
the current Arsenal team with the side that won the title without
losing a match in 2004. "I'm getting annoyed that we're finishing
at the end of the top four now. "I've been in the side who stayed
unbeaten a whole season, so I do know what it takes to win the
league," he said.
"Sometimes having a lot of youngsters in your squad you cannot have
the same spirit or the same result that you had the year we stayed
unbeaten. "We had guys who had been in the game for 15 or 10 years
and who had won a lot of stuff. "You know, winning is very
difficult, you don't just arrive there. I was not, and am still
not, a finished product, but I certainly wasn't a finished product
at 20."
Henry said he did not know what plans there were for strengthening
the squad this summer. "Talking about resources, it's out of my
hands, it's not what I do at the club," he said. "The only thing I
would like to say is that it has to happen from the pitch. "There's
a lot of stuff happened in the club recently, maybe it has to start
again and fresher."
The 29-year-old Frenchman refused to discuss reports that he could
soon be leaving for Barcelona but was less than passionate when
talking about his commitment to the club he joined in 1999. "Since
I started playing football, there's been speculation about me going
to a lot of clubs so that will never stop," Henry, who signed a new
four-year deal with Arsenal last May, said.
