Tuesday August 7, 2007 07:35
Henry Has Big Plans At Barcelona
Posted by The Soccer Blogger as Spanish La Liga
New Barcelona striker Thierry Henry has warned Barca’s league and European rivals that he plans to win everything possible on offer this season with his new club.
Despite looking absolutely shattered on his arrival in Japan with his Barcelona team mates the ex Arsenal striker quickly made the Champions League and the La Liga title as his top priorities.
Henry spoke to reporters before Barca’s pre-season game against Yokohama and stated, “There are a lot of people in that dressing room who want to win a lot of titles. The objective when you play for Barcelona is to win everything. The aim is to win those titles. It’s a long road but you have to start the season somewhere.
“I’m playing for one of the best teams, if not the best team in the world, that’s where the excitement is.”
Barcelona had already beaten Beijing Guoan 3 - 0 on Sunday during a whirlwind tour of the far-east [all about money and merchandising, as all big clubs do these days] but the tour has been criticised by some of the Barcelona players.
Henry who is trying to coax himself back from an injury ridden final season in North London, put on a positive spin on the clubs hectic pre-season schedule by stating, “Yes we are arriving [in Japan] physically tired but during the season there’ll be times when it will happen. There will be ten minutes left in a game and we will have to dig in mentally. It’s not the first time we’ve arrived for a game tired. We still have to perform and keep working.”
Henry also praised the work of the Barcelona medical staff after he started a game for the first time since March. Henry said, “It was the first time I started a game for a long time and only the third time I played 45 minutes. The staff are working hard to get me back to top shape as quickly as possible. What I want to say about this club is there is a great feeling of togetherness.” You kind of get the feeling he’s been given that last bit to say following on from all the bad publicity at the end of last season with Eto’o, Rijkaard and Ronaldinho.
Anyway, the Barca coach Rijkaard wouldn’t be drawn on the issue of whether he would play Henry, Eto’o and Ronaldinho, in what is quite frankly a pretty awesome front line. Rijkaard said, “We will look to play an aggressive style of football again this season but I am not going to rush things.
“We will look to put things into place bit by bit and build up momentum at the right time. I won’t take risks with Henry or with any other player.”
It’s going to be very interesting to see how those three players, in deed the whole team, bond and blend together this season. And I for one am looking forward to seeing the fight for the Championship and to seeing whether Barca can reclaim the title after being denied three in a row by their arch rivals.
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The Soccer Blogger