As one of the biggest clubs in English football, Arsenal have been blessed with a whole host of sensationally gifted players over the years.
From the likes of Liam Brady and Charlie George in the 1970s to David Roecastle and Ian Wright in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was during the early 2000s that the Gunners saw perhaps their greatest-ever crop of superstars.
Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pirès and Sol Campbell all helped to define a generation with their incredible football and achievements, but without a doubt, the king of them all was Thierry Henry.
The magical Frenchman is still considered the greatest Premier League player of all time by many today, so when a signing under former manager Unai Emery was compared to him, there was more than a little excitement among the fanbase.
Thierry Henry’s Arsenal career
Titi completed his £11m move to Arsenal, a club record fee at the time, in the summer of 1999, and while he had been a part of France’s World Cup-winning squad the summer prior, there was an element of doubt over how he would get on in North London following his underwhelming six-month spell with Juventus.
As we know now, such reservations were proven demonstrably wrong, as over the following eight seasons, the Les Ulis-born phenomenon would score an incredible 226 goals in 370 appearances while also providing 98 assists to boot.
This meant that the world-class attacker maintained an average of a goal involvement once every 1.14 games across eight years, during which he helped the Gunners lift two Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two Community Shields.
The 123-capped international would eventually leave for Barcelona in the summer of 2007 but would briefly return to the club for a month in January 2012, during which time he scored another two goals in seven substitute appearances.
Overall, it’s impossible to overstate the importance of Thierry Henry to the story of Arsenal football club, so when comparisons were made between the legendary Frenchman and one of the club’s most exciting signings in the summer of 2019, expectations were raised.
Unfortunately, such comparisons could not have been more misplaced.
The Arsenal signing compared to Henry
So, as Emery wasn’t given the chance to make too many signings, you can probably guess which player of his was compared to the Arsenal legend.
Yes, before he would go on to be considered a costly flop for the Gunners, £72m signing Nicolas Pepe was being likened to the French legend for his incredible form in France with LOSC Lille, where he had just scored 32 goals and provided 12 assists in 41 games.
For example, journalist Robin Bairner highlighted these comparisons in July 2019, describing it as “fitting” that he’d end up at the Emirates.
Jamie Redknapp then highlighted the similarity in how the winger opened up his body to strike the ball just a month later.
Lastly, even though he was starting to struggle at this point, former Liverpool icon Graeme Souness once again made the comparison following the Ivorian international’s goal against Newcastle United in February, arguing that Henry “didn’t have a great first season” either and that the Gunners’ new number 19 was set to become “a star here.”
Unfortunately, as we know, that didn’t happen. Instead, the transfer “mistake,” as dubbed by journalist Charlie Watts, continued to struggle and, following a loan back to France, would eventually leave the club for nothing after his contract was terminated by mutual consent in September last year.
In all, the Mantes-la-Jolie-born ace made 112 appearances for the club, in which he scored 27 goals and provided 21 assists, all while making £100k-per-week.
Ultimately, while Pepe is far from being the worst player Arsenal have signed over the years, there can be no denying that he was massively disappointing, and as such, the comparisons to Henry now look absurd.
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