jamie CARRAGHER ON HIS ARSE
"I played against Thierry many times for Liverpool and to be honest, it was an absolute nightmare."
Jamie Carragher introduces Thierry Henry as the first guest on his podcast 'The Greatest Game', 2019.
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Long before the two became pundit pals, the relationship between Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher was very similar to that between a bully and his downtrodden victim. Except, all Arsenal fans were on the side of the bully, and the sight of the victim on his arse was hilarious.
A one-club man, Carragher made over 500 appearances for Liverpool between 1996 and 2013 and won the FA Cup, the League Cup, the Community Shield, the UEFA Cup, the Super Cup and the Champions League. He was also capped 38 times for England.
As careers go, that's pretty good going. And yet, you suspect he still wakes up some mornings groaning at the memory of his encounters with Henry.
The Frenchman used to roast Carragher so often that someone even felt inspired to put together a YouTube showreel featuring five separate occasions the latter was left completely bamboozled by his opponent’s pace and power.
The video climaxes with Henry's legendary goal at Highbury in April 2004; a strike that starts with the Arsenal man picking up the ball near the halfway line and ends with him stroking the ball past Jerzy Dudek as Carragher tumbles into teammate Igor Biscan. Lovely stuff.
To be fair to Carragher, he's been effusive in his praise for Henry since he retired.
Picking his toughest XI for a segment on Sky Sports in 2020, Carragher outlined why the striker was well worthy of a place in a frontline featuring Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Certainly from my generation, it would be Messi and Ronaldo and one other. And that one other for me would be Thierry Henry, who I think is the greatest Premier League player ever and certainly my toughest opponent.
"I think that Arsenal team he played in, the Invincibles, and two or three years around that, that would certainly be my toughest opponent at home and abroad.
"When you're not having a great day as a player, 20 or 30 years ago, you could leave one on someone physically. That was still part of my game, even in the modern day although you had to be really careful in terms of cards. If someone's got better ability than me, ok, I can rattle them early on, put a really tough challenge, will they fancy it?
"The problem with Thierry Henry was that when you got in the tunnel with that Arsenal team, everyone was 6ft 2", everyone had shoulders out here and you looked at the physical battle and you couldn't knock them off their stride, they were too physically strong for you."