7 players who left Arsenal for bigger clubs

#3 Thierry Henry

Despite leaving for Barcelona, Thierry Henry was voted Arsenal's greatest ever player by the fans

As far as Arsenal legends go, they don’t get much bigger than Thierry Henry. The French star was signed by Arsene Wenger from Juventus as an inconsistent winger in the summer of 1999 for around £11m, but soon transformed into one of the most deadly strikers in Premier League history. Henry ended up becoming the Gunners’ key player for the 8 seasons he spent at the club, scoring 39 goals in all competitions in Arsenal’s legendary ‘Invincible’ season of 2003/04.

That season was followed by two trophyless ones for Arsenal though and with questions surrounding the future of Arsene Wenger at the time, Henry made a shock switch to Barcelona in the summer of 2007 for a fee of €24m.

The Frenchman stated that if he was ever going to leave Arsenal, it would always have been for Barcelona, and there didn’t seem to be many bad feelings from Arsenal fans – they voted him the club’s greatest player in a poll a year later.

After spending 3 seasons at the Nou Camp, Henry moved again – this time to MLS side New York Red Bulls, but there was a nice twist in the tale for Arsenal fans. The Frenchman made a short-term move back to the Emirates on loan in January 2012 during MLS’s off-season, making a final goodbye to Gunners fans with 7 more games – and 2 more goals.