Thierry Henry’s six-month spell with Juventus is an oft-forgotten chapter of the Frenchman’s storied career, so why didn’t things click in Turin?
After an exciting start to his career with Monaco, the French forward joined the Old Lady in January 1999 in a deal worth around £10.5m. Much was expected of the emerging talent, who had netted 20 goals in 105 league games in France, but he initially failed to impress after arriving in the North West of Italy.
Reflecting on his time in Turin when speaking to Reuters in 2011, Henry explained why his start to life with Juventus didn’t go to plan.
“It was one of Juve’s worst seasons. When I arrived the team was ninth in the league and we finished sixth, there were a lot of problems in the club.
“Lippi wanted to play me as a centre forward, I remember the first two games when I arrived he put me on the bench but every time I came on it was as a centre-forward.”
Lippi was dismissed by Juventus in February 1999 and was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti, who switched Henry’s role from centre forward to left winger.
“Ancelotti arrived and I played the remainder of the season on the left and at the very beginning I kind of struggled, I had to get used to the pace of the league, I had just arrived and a new position – we were playing 3-5-2 and so I had to cover the whole left side.”
Henry took a few weeks to finally adapt to the Juventus left wing but eventually things started to look positive, culminating in a brace against Lazio in mid-April. By now, the Frenchman was beginning to excite and fans were quickly won over.
This positive momentum unfortunately didn’t last, with an incident occurring between Henry and one of the management staff at Juventus. It proved to be enough to push him out the door and the forward left for Arsenal that summer.
“I started to play well, scoring and creating goals, then something happened with me and one of the bosses there and I decided to leave.
“I was actually happy, it was a great team, a great family but something happened that I didn’t like and it was time to go and to meet again with Arsene.”
It’s called betrayal, maybe at Inter he would have been better. After he left he knocked out all Italian clubs from the Champions League for years to come. Same with Salah, as soon as they sell talent to England, the Premiership Karma Machine will taunt the league over and over again so that not even a revenge grudge match can be avenged.
It was all Allegri’s fault, of course.
moggi tried to trade him for amoroso at udinese. thats why he left. he said this in an interview for carragher’s podcast. he had no intention of leaving had that not happened
He flopped in the toughest league in his time.
Simple as that.
But Lord Allegri is on his way to blame Allegri for Henry’s failure.
Put PhD Max in a time machine and Titi would be playing as left center back.
He said ´´something happened that I didn’t like´´ which means realy he did Luis Figo thing which means he saw Moggi go arround in a referee dressing room and realise that he was playing with cheaters and crooks. Got to respect Henry, he didn´t wont a be a part of criminal organisation.
@Cypher lol yea, what a flop. Young player, only given 6 months, while playing wing back for most of it.
You have the IQ of a donkey.
Moggi let one of the greatest players ever leave yet he is regarded as a mercato genius lol
Ancelotti and 4-4-2. He took that sacking as a good learning experience so he can thank the Avvocato for the success that followed.
Droga didnt Henry cheat Ireland out of a world cup ?
Indeed Cypher is a moron