Over the years, many players came to Arsenal for reasons other than football, or wanted to leave right away, not liking the situation which they faced. For example, Emiliano Martinez stated that he went to the Gunners due to his family’s poor financial state, while Willian admitted he wasn’t happy and told his agent to find him another club after only three months. Alex Song saw his contract proposal from Barcelona and when he saw the amount of money, he didn’t think twice, he left. But it wasn’t like that with club legend Thierry Henry. Arsenal’s number 14 suffered a downfall when he left the Gunners, and wasn’t happy. In fact, he was miserable and even faced mental health issues.Willian admits he wanted to quit Arsenal after only three monthsThe French striker was a part of that famous Arsenal squad which won two Premier Leagues, were ’Invincibles’ in 2003/04, and he also took two FA Cups while scoring a club record 228 goals. So, the disappointment of the fan base was big when Barcelona came calling in 2007. And things didn’t start well as the Frenchmen got injured and was getting through a divorce. On top of that, Henry struggled to make a similar sort of impact at Barcelona as he did in Arsenal, and played with some serious stars like Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o. He even suffered mental health issues, but at that time, it was ’taboo’ among his teammates.„When I left Arsenal for Barcelona it took me a year to be well. I arrived injured, I’m going through a divorce, I have to learn a new system, you mix it all up, keep playing the mind. In my time it was much more difficult, totally taboo. Even in the group. You came to the locker room: ‘Are you OK? Yes, even if things weren’t going well. Did you sleep well? Yes, even if it wasn’t. Are you in pain? No, even if you were in pain“ admitted Henry to L’ Equipe. (1.60) Liverpool (4.10) Inter (6.25)Eventually, Henry left Barcelona for New York Bulls, before returning briefly to Arsenal, but he now talks about mental health and that ’other side’ of athletes which are not known to ordinary fans.„Crying was impossible. You couldn’t show your weaknesses. It was: ”Thierry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry!” It happened to me to cry, alone, but I struggled not to break down. Now I cry. When I was a player, Arsene Wenger brought a shrink to Arsenal but I had trouble going to see him. I said to myself: I play football, why go there? When I became a coach, I wanted to integrate a shrink into the staff but I didn’t stay long enough in Monaco and in Montreal we didn’t have the budget. But it’s important because you have to be in pedagogy, more than in tactics. You have to know how to talk to the players, that they are well in their head“ explained Henry.Martinez: ‘I only joined Arsenal for my family’s sake’The Frenchman is now a TV pundit and covers Ligue 1, so in one TV show, he opened the subject of Neymar’s mental state. He explained his thoughts to L’ Equipe.„Neymar has often spoken in his last interviews about his well-being, about the pressure… So my first thought was: ‘Is he good?’ It wasn’t: he’s not doing any more small bridges, sombreros, he no longer accelerates… He speaks but can we hear him? He asks for ”help”, there are things going on in his head, like any human being. I can’t speak for Messi. But when we talk about Messi or Neymar, exceptional players, we forget this dimension too much. When Lionel cried leaving Barcelona, it was not programmed. When you think you’re never going to leave somewhere and suddenly it happens, it creates an emotional shock“ explained Henry.
