Thierry Henry says Mikel Arteta needs to do one thing that Arsene Wenger didn't to win the Champions League
Arsene Wenger is one of the greatest managers football has ever seen.
The legendary Frenchman spent over two decades as the manager of Arsenal, and he achieved immense success in North London on and off the pitch.
However, the one regret Wenger and Arsenal fans will always have is that he never managed to win the Champions League during his time at the club.
Thierry Henry thinks he knows the reason why and has advised Mikel Arteta not to repeat the same mistake.
Thierry Henry tells Arsenal not to repeat past mistake if they want to win the Champions League
Arsenal had one of the best teams in the world in the late ’90s and the early 2000s.
Arsene Wenger had built a phenomenal squad, and in the 2003/04 season, they made history by going the entire Premier League season unbeaten.
Those players, famously dubbed The Invincibles, had the ability to beat any side on their day, but they still couldn’t get over the line in the Champions League.
Henry, who was the main man in that side, has suggested now that Wenger’s inability to keep the core squad together is the reason why they never became European champions.
The Arsenal legend has further advised Arteta to not repeat the same mistake again as the Spaniard aims to go one step further in the Champions League than he did last season.
Henry said at the Champions League draw on TNT Sports: “Three years ago, quarter-finals. Two years ago, semi-finals. Last year, final. They just have to wait for this season! That’s all they need to do.
“No, joking aside, what you need to do, and I’m not here to tell Mikel what he has to do or anyone at the club, but we didn’t enjoy keeping the core of the Invincibles.
“If you keep that core, understand what that pain is and add what you need to add in order to go to the next step, then you will achieve what hasn’t been done at Arsenal Football Club.”
Thierry Henry is right, Arsenal lost their core after becoming Invincibles
The 2003/04 Arsenal team is one of the greatest sides in history.
That team had everything across the pitch, and their achievement in the Premier League that season speaks for itself.
However, in the years after that season, Arsenal lost so many of their big players.
Ray Parlour, Martin Keown, Sylvain Wiltord and Nwankwo Kanu left in 2004; Patrick Vieira, Edu Gaspar and Dennis Bergkamp departed in 2005; and Ashley Cole, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell and Jose Antonio Reyes bid farewell in 2006.
Because of the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal didn’t have the money to replace those players with top-class names, and that is why the Gunners were never really in contention to win the Champions League.
Arteta has kept his core so far, and hopefully, that will help him get over the line in Europe this season.
