I had been intending to ignore the latest Will He, Won’t He saga; if his Agent strenously denies the current round of tabloid tales then so be it. You have to give the man the benefit of the doubt. Add to the mix the quote in this morning’s Guardian and it seems to me that Le Captain is staying put, for now,

I have taken no decisions. Lots of people are speaking on my behalf. It’s impossible to stop the rumours – it’s not the first or the last time that people are speaking for me. In my head I’m still an Arsenal player and my departure is not a current issue

Which is fair enough. The additional stuff about Dein is just hot air and as Arseblogger put it, he needs to get over it (although my memory believes a few other adjectives may have been inserted in the original quote making it more definitive).

However, there comes a point where the media circus around Henry is detrimental to the player and the squad. At a time when he should be focussing on the new season, he is still rehashing the old ground of a possible move. It is not conducive to a happy player and one thing that Henry needs to be to perform at his peak is happy. He has raised valid points about the Board and the Club need to sign a couple of ‘super super class‘ players (God how I have come to hate that phrase) in order to move the team up a notch at a quicker pace than their natural talent will do. This is not an unreasonable request in itself even though he has not acknowledged Le Boss’s holiday would have held that up.

The one thing that strikes me though is that he is playing down the ability of the squad. To request top players at the club denigrates those there to an extent, assuming that they are not up to the task yet it ignores the fact that for nearly half a season in 2006-07, one or both of our top strikers were missing. A fully fit Henry (or even RvP) would, I believe, have brought eight more points to the total – defeats to West Ham and Everton could have been wins and the Chelsea draw, a win – making third a clear placing and not too far behind Chelsea, enough to bring more optimism to the Club.

But that is supposition. Henry and RvP were missing and those results are set in History’s stone. So we look at next season. I have seen requests on mailing lists and boards for us to sign a world class striker. It is not going to happen. Why? Thierry Henry. Whilst he is at the Club, there is no way a Torres or Klose will sign because they know they will not displace Henry and neither of those two or their peers wants to leave their current teams to be a bit part player which is understandable as they have their own reputations forged through their efforts.

So the question then remains as to whether Henry staying is beneficial to the squad. To try and assess Henry dispassionately is very difficult. You cannot ignore the role he has played at the club since his arrival; the number of times he has scored important goals for the team. His detractors will argue that he has never scored in a Final for Arsenal. George Best never played in a World Cup Final but that does not mean he was any less of a great player.

Henry is a player who if he is in the mood, is still one of the top three strikers in the World. If he is fit and focussed, believes in the players around him and has confidence that they can win, no doubt about it, he should stay. If his heart is not in it, then he it is time for his Arsenal career to end.