As Arsenal have sold Thierry Henry, many papers mention his scoring record of 226 goals in 369 matches for the club, including 42 in 84 in Europe. His style of play gets the headlines, but his scoring rate is hugely impressive – he also has 40 goals for France in 92 matches. These stack up against any comparitive player you choose. For example, Alan Shearer scored more Premiership goals (260), but in more matches (441) – a rate of 0.58 compared to Henry’s 174 in 254 – 0.68 goals per game.
Henry cost £10.5m from Juventus in 1999, and is being sold at 29 for £16m – an impressive return. Arsene Wenger has a knack of pulling off brilliant deals. Nicolas Anelka cost £0.5m in 1996, and was sold 3 years later to Real Madrid for £22.3m.
Whatever happens, the stats show that Henry is a great player who will be missed, but Wenger is a shrewd manager who knows a good bit of business when he sees it.
