Thierry Henry criticizes Manchester United dressing room and says it is not ideal for a player like Anthony Martial. Arsenal legend Thierry Henry says, he was like his fellow countryman when he first arrived at Arsenal back in 1999. A few years later Henry went on to become a Premier League great and won a couple of League titles under Arsene Wenger. He was also the part of that invincible team in 2003 that when unbeaten in the league that season, a record still to be broken.
The Frenchman believes Martial has got that similar talent in him but maybe he would not reach that greatness of Henry staying at Manchester United and it is because of the current United dressing room and his teammates.
“He is exactly like I was when I came to Arsenal, he needs to go through the process like I did with you lot and I do not know if the Manchester United dressing room is like that,” Henry told Lee Dixon for the Arsenal Podcast.
Martial joined Manchester United five years ago in 2015 and made a sensational debut after scoring against Liverpool coming off the bench in his first appearance for United at Old Trafford. Since then his growth has been less than it was first expected. There was a lack of stability in the club as United had three managers in the last five years. This season, Martial is playing his best football and has scored 16 goals so far just one less than his best tally in a season that is 17 goals. In the last couple of months, Martial played as a frontman and hit form immediately following the injury to Marcus Rashford.
Dixon told Arsenal Podcast, “I am not saying he would have been as good as Thierry – but would have been similar if he had been in the old United dressing room with the characters like what we had in our dressing room. He certainly talks about that as a real learning lesson in his curve to get how brilliant he was.”
“To liken himself to Martial or another player to him, it really painted a picture of what Martial was like and what his character was like because he is super-talented like Thierry was and I think his development would have been similar.”
Thierry shared his Arsenal dressing room with some of the greats in their history with the likes of Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Nigel Winterburn and David Seaman. Like Martial, Henry also struggled to find his feet for the Gunners earlier in his career and then he went on to ripping up opposing defences with ease.
That experience and class in that dressing room is something Martial is not going to get in Manchester United these days and Henry believes his compatriot might not reach his full potential staying at Old Trafford. United are sitting at fifth in the Premier League table and is fighting to qualify for the next season’s UEFA Champions League. They are only behind Chelsea who are at fourth with three more points than them.
It will be interesting to see if the Red Devils and Martial can now prove the Arsenal legend wrong. They have really done well towards the business end of the season and if the season would have gone on, could have finished in the top-four as well. It will be interesting to see how things further develop in the campaigns to come.
