Having been in the same position three years ago, New York Red Bulls striker Thierry Henry admits he does not envy the decision facing Cesc Fabregas’ about his Arsenal future.
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Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas played together for four years at Arsenal
• Wenger wants to end Fabregas saga
Fabregas has consistently been linked with a move back to the club Arsenal signed him from as a teenager, with Barca’s interest firming since the end of last season.
The Catalans had a €35million offer for the midfielder turned down by the Gunners last month, who for their part have shown little sign they would like to part with one of their most prized players.
Arsene Wenger attempted to draw a line under the summer’s longest-running transfer saga on Saturday by claiming the speculation surrounding his captain’s future “has to stop”.
“It is very important we give the impression that just because somebody wants a player from us, we do not just give in,” Wenger said said.
But Henry, Arsenal’s all-time leading goalscorer, was himself lured away from north London three years ago and while he said he would like to see Fabregas remain, he admitted it would be understandable if the 23-year-old returned to his homeland.
“It is hard because the guy is from Barcelona. I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes that’s all I can say,” Henry told Radio Five’sSportsweek programme.
“I wouldn’t like to be in his position because he is from there and he loves Arsenal. I don’t know what to say about this, because I don’t want to talk for him.
“But as an Arsenal fan, for me, I want him to stay at Arsenal, but I would also understand if he goes back home.”
Henry is preparing to begin a new chapter in his life after he signed for Major League Soccer side the New York Red Bulls this week.
The 32-year-old is likely to finish his career in the United States after he signed a “multi-year deal”, but revealed when his playing days are over he would like to return to the Emirates Stadium in some capacity.
“What I want to do is when I retire, I don’t know how, but I want to come back to Arsenal,” he said, “I have just come here (New York) to play and to compete and win another title.
“After everything is done then I will think about it. Whatever it is I want to come back (to Arsenal), maybe as a waterboy, I just love this club.”
Coincidentally, Henry’s first game for New York could be against the Gunners’ north-London rivals Tottenham, with the teams to meet in a pre-season friendly on Thursday.
“I’m trying to get back in shape (for the match),” Henry said. “I’ve not done much since the World Cup. I don’t think I will play long, but we will see.”
After a World Cup final of so toxic a nature the stadium is in need of decontamination more than the regular clean-up. To Spain comes rightful glory as they took this prize for the first time. The side prevailed over a Holland team that was reduced to 10 men when the English referee, Howard Webb, eventually dismissed the defender John Heitinga, with a second caution in the 109th minute. Cesc Fábregas, on as a substitute, fed Andrés Iniesta to score the winner seven minutes later.
Holland were already being rebuked prior to the final but these events were on a wholly different scale and Fifa should take additional action considering the harm done to the culmination of a tournament that means so much around the globe. The losers were overwhelmingly the guiltier party, with seven bookings, not including Heitinga’s pair. Spain’s count climbed to five with late cautions for Xavi and Iniesta near the end.
Repellent as many of the events were, talent insisted on creeping in and Spain both manufactured and misused a rising number of opportunities, particularly in extra-time. As it is, all four of their matches in the knockout phase have been won by the same 1-0 score. The Euro 2008 title, too, came with that result. In Johannesburg the frustration while waiting for the breakthrough was vast. An unbeaten run of 25 matches came to an end for Holland but it would have been better for their reputation had they lost earlier instead of tying themselves to this notoriety.
It would still be a misrepresentation to state that Holland devoted themselves entirely to wrong-doing and, in the 82nd minute, Arjen Robben was denied by an Iker Casillas save at his feet. No one can deny, though, that the victors are entitled to the prize. This occasion might bear less infamy if only they had scored earlier. As results show, chance-taking is the sole defect. The right-back Sergio Ramos, for instance, put a free header high from a corner kick in the 77th minute. The side’s wastefulness was glaring, too, in extra-time.
Still, they are to be excused for any sense of disorientation. The mayhem and nastiness of the occasion were encumbrances for Spain, who would have envisaged a wholly different type of game. It was potentially unsettling that this victory in the World Cup could be seen as their destiny considering that they had never even reached the final before. Vicente del Bosque’s side, for that matter, have developed a highly individual style founded on exceptional technique that exhausts and demoralises opponents as a midfield of supreme artistry confiscates the ball.
The flaw lies in the fact that possession can be an end in itself for Spain. European champions though they might be, the team began their World Cup programme in South Africa with defeat by Switzerland. They went behind then and a single goal sufficed for the victors. That occasion must have been prominent in the thoughts of the coach, Bert van Marwijk, and the Holland players. It can certainly be agreed that adversity of another sort lay before Spain in Johannesburg.
There had been an expectation that the Dutch would be much less respectful than the young Germany side that lost to Spain in the last four. Holland have a hard-bitten air and Mark van Bommel, the defensive midfielder, is utterly at peace while making enemies. Even so, no one anticipated this extreme conflict. Webb might well have shown Van Bommel a red card before the interval but was most likely trying to bring about some semblance of calm.
The standard medals for the officials should be seen as awards for a hazardous peace-keeping mission. Four bookings in the opening 22 minutes did not get the attention of players, particularly those of Dutchmen with their minds on anarchy.
Nigel De Jong took up old habits unacceptably later in the first half but escaped with a yellow card after landing his studs in the chest of Xabi Alonso.
The midfielder was unscathed but Spain had a fragility of sorts. Fernando Torres, out of form since a knee injury in March, did not come off the bench till near the close and, without him, the lack of a finisher is unmistakable. All the same, Ramos did connect with a Xavi set piece after four minutes and Maarten Stekelenburg was fully extended to parry to his right.
The subtler aspects of open play were generally forgotten. Spain, as anticipated, had more polish but the final assuredly did not gleam. Whatever was said at half-time did not lead to the players changing their ways. Before an hour was completed it had been necessary for Webb to caution Holland’s Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Despite being captain, veteran and cultivated left-back, not even he was above the ugliness.
The tone might have altered swiftly with a goal that looked likely in the 62nd minute. Wesley Sneijder suddenly introduced artistry with a lovely pass that put Arjen Robben clear of Spain’s defence and the winger attempted to take care, yet Casillas got his right leg in the path of the parting shot and conceded merely a corner.
It was a spell in which the Dutch were in the ascendancy. The better moments made it all the more infuriating that Webb still had to keep reaching for his yellow card. For convenience sake he would have been as well keeping it in his hand at all times. There were only three players from the Holland starting line-up who were not cautioned: Stekelenburg, Dirk Kuyt and Sneijder.
Whatever sanctions may lie ahead, Spain at least punished them by claiming the World Cup.
New Head-Injury Research Drives a Revolution in Football Helmet Technology
Four Years of Research and Development Helps Create a New Helmet Designed With The Intent of Reducing the Risk of Concussion
As NFL training camps begin and more than 1.2 million high school students(1) gear-up for summer football practices, the question of injury is again top-of-mind with coaches, players and parents. But some good news from the football equipment industry may help parents and coaches sleep easier at night.
A new study, partially funded by NFL Charities, has found that most on- the-field concussions — widely considered one of the most serious and misunderstood of the contact sports injuries — are caused by impacts to the side of the head, not the front or top, as previously believed(2). Based on this new insight, a leading helmet manufacturer is taking an innovative approach to help prevent one of the game’s most dangerous injuries.
Riddell is introducing a new football helmet called the Revolution(TM), a first-of-its-kind helmet using new technology with the intent of reducing the risk of concussion. This computer designed helmet marks the first significant structural change in a player’s headgear in nearly 25 years. The helmet will be available for NFL, college, high school and youth league athletes.
“We turned to science to design our new Revolution helmet, which took more than four years to develop and produce,” said Bill Sherman, CEO of Riddell, which is the official helmet of the NFL. “It represents the next generation of football helmets — a sleek-looking design built with protection in mind. NFL trainers, equipment managers, coaches and players are all talking about it, but we’re really excited about the opportunity to offer this new helmet to players from the college ranks on down.”
Football appears to have taken the lead over baseball as the all-American sport, attracting more than 1.2 million players at the high school level. But as with all contact sports, knocking heads is part of the rough and tumble action of a football game — which can lead to concussion. An ongoing study estimates that football causes nearly 100,000 concussions each year, with 40,000 attributed to the high school level(3). Few injuries can sideline an otherwise healthy athlete faster than a concussion.
A Revolutionary Change
The design of the Revolution helmet is based on the findings of a long- term study of professional football players conducted by Biokinetics & Associates, an independent engineering consulting firm, and several universities. The research revealed that of all the hits that resulted in a concussion, nearly 70 percent were to the side, face or jaw area.
The new Revolution helmet includes innovative features specifically designed to help reduce the risk of concussion. The Tru-Curve(TM) protective shell extends to the jaw area and has been computer designed around the head’s center of gravity to offer superior front-to-back fit and stability. The new Z-pad design provides protection to the side of the head and the jaw — helping to lessen the energy of impact on these areas if a collision occurs. The patented VSR Air-Fit(TM) System features padding that can inflate to offer a custom fit to every player’s head shape.
With the Revolution, Riddell has increased the distance from the helmet shell to the player’s head – allowing for greater room to manage the types of hits that can cause concussion. The Isolator(TM) faceguard system is designed to isolate the attachment points of the faceguard from the shell – reducing jarring to the player from low-level impacts to the faceguard. Riddell maintains its commitment to producing a lightweight product without compromising protection.
Research-Based Protection
Learning more about the “hows and whys” of concussion led Riddell to this current model. Scientists from Biokinetics & Associates analyzed videotapes of football field head collisions to determine the details of motion and contact. These same conditions were re-created in the lab, where special sensors inside helmeted crash dummy heads measured the impact forces.
“Our study helped demonstrate how head traumas really happen, which provided the industry with new insight,” said Dr. James Newman of Biokinetics & Associates. “We helped correct some misconceptions about concussion and demonstrated that impacts to the side of the head have more significance in causing concussions than impacts taken on top. Additionally, rotational forces seem to play a big role in the biomechanics of concussion. While no helmet can fully prevent concussion, we hope this new research will bring us one step closer in reducing the number of concussions players suffer on the field.”
Riddell is making the new research available to other helmet manufacturers in the hopes that more companies will adapt this new technology to help reduce the rate of concussions.
Repercussions of Concussion
Football is a contact sport and concussions have always been a risk of the game. If there’s a significant impact to the head, the brain moves about freely inside the skull — bumping against the bone, which can stretch, twist and potentially break the nerve cell fibers and blood vessels in the brain. There are varying degrees of concussion, with the most serious involving a loss of consciousness.
While the professionals are bigger, stronger and collide with greater impact, younger players are at an equal — if not greater risk. Some research suggests that children and teenagers may be more likely to suffer from prolonged brain swelling following a concussion(4). Therefore, high-school athletes may have a slower recovery than college-aged or older athletes and may be more susceptible to complications.
Symptoms, which depend on the severity of the concussion, can include headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, confusion, blurred vision, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), double vision and loss of consciousness — although most of the time a player is not knocked out cold. Repeated and severe concussions may result in long-term effects, such as memory loss and other neurological problems, experts warn.
The Revolution Begins
The Revolution has already made its debut on football’s biggest stage. During last year’s Super Bowl XXXVI, players were offered the chance to wear the new helmet for the first time and St. Louis Rams fullback James Hodgins became the first player to don the Revolution. During the upcoming season, all NFL players will have the option of taking advantage of this new technology. Riddell’s Revolution will also have a significant presence at the college and high school levels, where more and more teams are expected to make it a part of their standard uniform.
Parents of football players should ask their coach or athletic director about the type of helmet that’s currently used by their team. To learn more about the new Revolution helmet, call 1-800-275-5338 or log on to www.riddell.com . To find out more about sports-related concussion — including the symptoms, myths about brain injury and the potential long-term effects — parents can contact the Brain Injury Association at www.biausa.org or the American Academy of Neurology at www.aan.com.
