Thierry Henry is a man with many excellent attributes: intelligence in abundance, football skills of the highest order and a personality that seems to be overflowing with genuine passion for life in general as well as the beautiful game in particular.

Sadly, honesty does not seem to rank up there with the personal qualities of which he can be proud.

To say he is leaving Arsenal because one of the directors left if pure lunacy and, to all intents and purposes, a bare faced lie. All players like to leave clubs on a positive note and that is undoubtedly why he spent so much of his farewell press conference insisting he loves Arsenal and will always be a fan of the club.

But to then say his leaving is a direct result of David Dein’s departure is nothing short of baffling. Since when have footballers left a club because a director has left a club? It just doesn’t happen.

I don’t blame Henry for looking for a scapegoat for his move to Barcelona. But the Dein excuse is just laughable. No matter how much influence the director may have had over the Arsenal transfer policy, there is no way he could have had such a direct influence over one player. Directors just don’t come into contact with players that often are important factors in their decision making process.

In fairness, Henry did add that the uncertainty over Arsene Wenger’s future was another contributing factor in his decision to leave Arsenal. And that is much, much more believable. Wenger has been part of Henry’s career for more than a decade and it must be tricky for him to consider a future without the French manager by his side.

Then again, he is hardly going to have him by his side at Barcelona, is he? So even that doesn’t rank particularly high on the list of reasons to leave Arsenal. Not to mention the fact there are now rumours Wenger will be signing a new contract sometime this week and, surely, that’s something that might have come up in any pre-sale conversation between manager and player.

It would have been so simple for Henry to be honest. All he had to say was that the overall uncertainty at Arsenal was making him uneasy while the lack of major transfers was eroding his belief that Arsenal’s ambitions matched his own.

Or maybe he could have explained that, at 30, and after eight years in London, he just needed a change of club to refresh his motivation. A change of air, so to speak.

Any of those reasons would have been both legitimate and admirable. Arsenal fans wouldn’t have thought any less of him for being honest.

Ultimately I have no doubt that Thierry’s love for Arsenal is genuine and his contribution to the team has been quite stunning. I just feel the fans, who loved him back in equal measure, deserved a little more honesty when the time came for the parting of ways.

Sven Goran Eriksson

We are surely no more than a few hours away from the return of Sven Goran Eriksson to management - if it hasn’t already happened - and the fans at the City of Manchester Stadium must be wetting themselves in anticipation.

It’s been a year since the world of football was last treated to the awesome sight of the magnificent Swede sitting clueless, passionless and aimless on the England bench.

But, before you get the wrong impression, I don’t think this is a bad move for newly-rich Manchester City.

Sven may have been the most expensive failure in history at international level but, at club level, his personal record is nothing short of fantastic.

There is every chance that while Sven may have found himself out of his depth when it came to managing an international side, he will not have lost the touch at domestic level.

A recent poll shows that the vast, vast majority of City fans do not want Sven at their club. But I think they may just be a little hasty. One of the things Sven has always been good at is buying his way to success and that is probably one of the reasons he was no good with England where cheque book solutions were just not an option.

However, at Manchester City, with their newly swollen bank account, issuing cheques will very much be the order of the day.

And, say what you like about Sven, he is just as good at spending money as he is at earning it. And that, as the English FA will testify, is pretty darned good.

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