Topics: Arsenal, Thierry Henry, Premier League
"He had everything. The night before games, I'd have sleepless nights." - John Terry
"I think a player like that only comes around once every 100 years." - Dennis Bergkamp
"Coming up against Thierry Henry was the most difficult job in football." - Jamie Carragher
A compilation of Premier League legends talking about Thierry Henry shows how highly-rated he was amongst some of the all-time greats, including Steven Gerrard, Sir Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane.
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On August 3, 1999, Arsenal completed the signing of highly-rated Juventus striker Henry for 'just' £11 million.
At the time, it was seen a shrewd piece of business from the North London club, who were looking to challenge for silverware again. But nobody expected him to achieve what he did in a trophy-spell under Arsene Wenger.
The Frenchman would score 228 goals in 377 games for the Gunners during two separate spells and, in that time, he would cement himself as a Premier League legend.
His raw pace, power and skill would keep former Chelsea captain John Terry up at night ahead of matchday.
And former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has gone on record several times saying he was the toughest player he'd come up against.
Even the hard-to-please Roy Keane labelled him as "absolutely fantastic" in his Best of Enemies show with Henry's former teammate Patrick Vieira.
You can watch the brilliant YouTube clip titled: 'Premier League legends talk about Thierry Henry' below.
Despite his overwhelming success at Arsenal, the great Sir Alex Ferguson passed on signing Henry prior to his arrival in North London.
That's according to Manchester United's former head of security Ned Kelly, who says Ferguson thought the Frenchman was too injury-prone.
"In the tunnel after the game my phone goes," Kelly told beIN Sports. "Eric's older brother Jean-Marie [Cantona] says, 'Ned, tell Alex [Ferguson] that Thierry Henry wants to come to the club.'
"Now this was before he went to Arsenal, his first choice was Manchester United. So I go to the boss and say, 'boss, I've just had Jean-Marie Cantona on the phone, he had said Henry wants to come to the club'.
"He [Ferguson] says, 'no way, he's always f****** injured'. He went to Arsenal and the rest is history."
It looked like Ferguson may have been right when Henry failed to score in his first eight games as an Arsenal player, but as Ned Kelly rightly said; the rest, as they say, is history.
