Henry or not Henry: that is the question.

It’s fair to say that many an Arsenal fan has been dreaming of the day their favourite son and all time top scorer returned to North London to don the famous canon on his chest one more time, yet few would have ever actually believed it to happen again. Four and half years on since Thierry Henry set sail for the bright lights of Barcelona in a 16 million pound deal that broke the hearts of many, the signs are that he is coming home again.

Arsenal fans will be delighted and already hoping that he can pick up where he left off, rekindling some of the form that was such a huge part of one of Arsenal’s most successful ever periods. The reality is however that there is a chance, and just a small one, that it may not be the dream deal that everyone imagines it to be. Arsene Wenger will have thought long and hard about whether it is a good idea or not, as he does so scrutinously with every transfer he considers. That the deal is going ahead means for Wenger it is a gamble worth taking.

Putting Henry’s history with Arsenal aside, on the face of it, it is clearly a great deal for the Gunners. Currently they have a striker in Robin van Persie who is, at the moment, unquestionably the best in his position in the country. Aside from that, their only other real options in that area are Marouane Chamakh and Ju-Young Park. Chamakh, without sounding too harsh, appears to offer very little to the team. In recent cameo appearances he has struggled to even register that he is on the pitch. His confidence has completely gone and he is not the same player that forced Wenger to sign him from Bordeux, nor the one that started life quite brightly at the Emirates. Park on the other hand is not proven at this level and the fact Wenger has given him very little chance to prove himself shows he clearly doesn’t trust him to lead the line in games that matter. It has to be said that the Gunners have actually missed Nicklas Bendtner this season as he added an extra dimension to their game from the bench, something which Chamakh certainly can’t offer. Therefore the arrival of a proven world-class goal scorer that has won everything there is to win in the game, will surely only benefit and add much needed depth to the Arsenal squad.

When you add to this that Chamakh will be lost to the African Nations for a month, along with Gervinho, Henry’s arrival suddenly seems a lot more essential. It is actually a perfect move for Wenger as by signing him on-loan for two months, it deals perfectly with the hole in squad as a result of the African Nations and means he wont be forced to spend money on cover, which he may have been put under huge pressure to do so otherwise. Even if Henry is on the bench, where he will surely start until he gets some match fitness, he offers something huge. Arsenal’s bench at the moment just isn’t dangerous enough. No one screams of danger when looking at it and no one will strike fear into the opposition when they come on. The likes of Tomas Rosicky, Andrei Arshavin and Yossi Benayoun are all decent players but none are game changers these days, where as Henry possibly still could be - how Wenger would have loved to call on his talents from the bench in the recent draw against Wolves. The one player who really could make an impact from the bench and frighten a defence is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, yet Wenger, wrongly or rightly, has been very stubborn about including him on the bench week in, week out so not to stunt his progress. Yet while Wenger has admitted it may be time soon for him to get some real match time, Henry’s arrival could ultimately be the thing to stunt the youngster’s progress.

If you were to be critical on Henry’s arrival it could be said that it may disrupt the dressing room and the team’s current harmony that they have recently rebuilt ever so effectively since the 8-2 defeat to Manchester United back in August, after which it was in shatters. Will van Persie still feel like the leader of the team with such an influential character looking over his shoulder? Will the likes of Thomas Vermaelan feel like they have fallen down the pecking order in terms of experience at the club? Will some of the younger players be scared to express themselves on and off the pitch, like those back in Henry’s last season at Arsenal? Even Wenger admitted the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Mathieu Flamini, and the team as a whole in the 2007-08 season, really came out of their shells after the big man’s departure. To say all this however is both harsh and disrespectful to a footballing and Arsenal legend. He may come back wiser, simply wanting to help out his beloved team by imparting his wisdom to the rest of the team in whichever way he can. The fact that he has been training at the club for a while now means it is not like a stranger just walking into the team. Besides, in his last season at Arsenal he was a frustrated man. The Invincibles were disbanding and watching the club finish fourth two years running, whilst failing to challenge for the title was hard for the passionate Frenchman to watch. These days the goals posts have been moved and if Arsenal can finish fourth this season, considering their horrendous start to their campaign, it will be seen as a success and Henry will strive in his two months at the club to fight for the cause.

One worry for fans, and perhaps for Wenger too, is that the arrival could interrupt van Persie’s fine vein of form. He clearly thrives on being the main man, which can be seen in his goal scoring record since Arsenal have moved to 4-5-1/4-3-3 in which he has led the line on his own. His goals have been the main reason Arsenal have bounced back up the table and were Henry to disrupt this then Arsenal may not be playing Champions League football next season. On the other hand, if Henry still has what it takes then the sight of a partnership between himself and van Persie could be a magical sight. Throw in the pace of Theo Walcott and you’ve got a front three that could cause any defence in the world a problem.

Just imagine if he came back as effective as before, setting alight the Premier League and firing Arsenal up the table. There would then be problem for Arsenal and the New York Red Bulls to sort out after the allotted two months. Yes the move could be viewed as a slight risk if you are being fussy, but there is no doubt the pros well and truly outweigh the cons. I mean the man is one of only three people who have ever lived to have a statue of themselves outside Arsenal’s stadium – how can this move be anything other than a success?

The underachieving FIFA Club World Cup...

Another year, another FIFA Club World Cup comes along relatively unnoticed. You’d be forgiven for not realising that the tournament, which one would presume to be the ultimate club prize in football, was actually nearing its climax – the final takes place on Sunday. Admittedly Barcelona’s 4-0 semi-final win over Al-Sadd Sports Club has hit the news today however the biggest part of the story was not the actual result but the news of David Villa sadly breaking his leg. A Club World Cup should be big news in itself, not just a minor footnote in a story about an injury.

If the World Cup is the greatest prize, not just in international football, but in football itself, then surely a World Cup for club teams should be the biggest prize in club football. Given that the (international) World Cup is bigger than the European Championships, then why shouldn’t the Club World Cup, logically, be the bigger tournament to the Champions League. It strikes me that the FIFA are clearly missing a trick here. It should be a bigger and better, more prestigious tournament. The ultimate club competition. A tournament that FIFA can safely say is more worthy of winning than UEFA’s Champions League, just like they can do with their flagship World Cup to their little brother’s European Championships.

Why not take a leaf out of the book they used then planning the World Cup and stage the tournament once every four years to make it more valuable. Each club that wins their continent’s respected major trophy for the four years leading up to the competition could qualify, giving the tournament a lot more depth than it currently has. If Barcelona, for example, walk the Champions League every year then the beaten finalists could qualify as well. If people moan about the overall quality of the teams participating then perhaps extra European slots for teams with high UEFA Coefficients could be allocated, much like how in the World Cup Europe has more teams than Africa for instance. It could take place during a summer when there is no other major international tournament, allowing room for the extra fixtures, as opposed to the current tournament that annoyingly takes place just before Christmas, and is over before you even realised it had begun. FIFA should drop their Confederations Cup and replace it with this new brainchild, for the footballing world would be a far better place for it. Can anyone even name the past winners of that cup?

Can anyone name the past winners of Club World Cup for that matter? No, and that is the point. Nobody, from Europe at least, really cares about it. It is a minor tournament in the football calendar that certainly wasn’t worthy of Manchester United dropping out of the FA Cup for back in 1999/2000. FIFA need to revamp it, spend copious amounts of money and time marketing it as the most coveted prize in club football, come up with a theme tune to trump UEFA’s Champions League magnum opus of a masterpiece and make countries so desperate to host it that they’ll bribe FIFA bucket-loads of cash, or involve their Prince and Prime Minister as part of their bid. Now I’ll be the first to admit that this is all a load of wishful thinking and will probably never happen. But it makes sense. FIFA probably know it does too.

A sad night for Manchester.

Who would have thought it? Just a night after Chelsea overcame their ‘do or die’ encounter with Valencia to join the already qualified Arsenal, completing the duo of London teams safely through to the knockout stages of club football’s most prestigious tournament, the two teams from Manchester do the exact opposite. The two sides that sit first and second in the Premier League table, and the two sides that have played some of the most breathtaking football at times this season, will both be playing in the meagrely Europa League come next March.

Arsenal’s start to the season was to put simply, a disaster. The selling of two of their best players, in Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, without the adequate replacements initially brought in, was soon followed by calls for the head of Arsene Wenger and a set of uninspiring performances that culminated with the 8-2 defeat to Manchester United, their worst in 114 years. They have since found their feet, largely to do with the goals from their talisman Robin van Persie, and have not only risen up the table to become serious contenders for 4^th place again but became the first English team to progress to the next stages of the Champions League. They were already guaranteed first place with a game to go.

Chelsea’s have also had to deal with turbulence this season. Up until their recent 3-0 victory over Newcastle, they had won just two games from their last seven, in a season that was/is threatening to become similar to the ilk of that run last year, which effectively cost Carlo Ancellotti his job at the end of last season. In a league campaign that has already seen them lose to United, Arsenal and Liverpool, staying in the Champions League was vital for the team and for Andre Villas-Boas’ future.

Manchester City did all they could last night, beating an under strength Bayern Munich 2-0. Yet it was clearly too little too late. City came into the tournament as new boys, yet this wasn’t the same as Tottenham entering the unknown on their maiden voyage last year. City are a team full of superstars. Experienced Champions League superstars. Yes they were handed one of the toughest draws of all, yet if they want to be the best, which Roberto Mancini clearly believes they are on their way to being, they have to beat the best.

The side, who have thrived on the expectation heaped on them in domestic competition, have struggled with the same expectations in Europe. Teams lift their game when it comes to facing City as no doubt many clubs look on with contempt at the way they have risen from mediocrity so quickly, as Karl-Heinz Rummenigge will testify. They are the team everyone now wants to beat. Away defeats to Bayern Munich and Napoli, needing a last minute winner to spare their blushes at home to the woeful Villareal, the Tevez in Munich saga. It has been a campaign to forget and certainly not one any City fan, or Mancini, had envisaged.

It is United’s crash that is all the more shocking however, when you consider the group United had and that under Alex Ferguson they had only ever fallen at this hurdle twice before. Even after some stuttering group displays qualification was still in their own hands going into the final game and with only a draw away to Basel needed, you would certainly have backed them. Most of Ferguson’s previous United sides would certainly have got the job done. But this is a different United, one in transition and one that has been missing a world-class central midfielder. So much so that Wayne Rooney has had to fill in at times. Add to this that, due to injury problems, Ferguson has struggled to pick a regular defensive partnership this season (skipper Nemanja Vidic is now out again) one can see how these cracks have affected their Champions League performances this season, the two defensive displays against Basel being a glaring example. Yet in a group containing Basel, Benfica and Otelul Galati, Ferguson would have expected his side to finish first, let alone third. Being unable to beat Basel or Benfica home or away ultimately cost them and it means they deserve to be where they are. They had their confidence knocked after being out played in last years final and have not recovered at all since.

It’s been six years to the day since United went out to Benfica, their last early European exit, however they were spared of having to participate in Europe’s second tier competition as they finished bottom of their group. This season however they will be playing on Thursday nights live on Channel Five. That Patrice Evra says it is “embarrassing” to be in the competition says it all really. Is there any point in them taking it seriously? Whilst being one of the few trophies available that Ferguson has yet to win, I’m sure the Scotsman would not call it a success if they went on to win it. They would be better off focusing on winning a title that at the moment they are far from favourites for, rather than letting the new competition distract them. Even Ferguson has noted the disadvantages playing on a Thursday and then a Sunday could have on their ambitions.

City may have been challenging for the trophy last season, but they are a different team now to that one. Not simply with the additions of the likes of Sergio Aguero and Nasri but with the fact that they have been taking massive strides at every moment possible since then. Yet this catastrophe is one giant step back. Something that City are not allowed and not supposed to be doing, at least on their owner’s watch. Mancini has even admitted, “maybe now we think the Europa League is not an important trophy”. He is right. David Silva’s goal and performance last night show the likes of his talents are too good for the Europa League. Both teams could walk to the final, presuming they don’t meet each other first, but that’s not what they want. United wanted to show they could finally outdo Barcelona and City wanted to prove they were the new force in European football. They’ll both have to wait another year to do that now. Channel Five wont mind though.