Arsenal Wonderkid went to Henry 2.0, but Edu sold him for just £4 million.

When it comes to Arsenal’s greatest forward of all time, there’s only one answer: Thierry Henry.

The French magician joined the club in 1999 and, together with Arsene Wenger and other sensational players, helped define the era of British football.

In all, the former Leuris-born genius scored 228 goals and 96 assists in 37 appearances for Gunner.

However, Arteta may have had Edu Gaspard, who may have had a version of him himself, and did not sell a highly rated young man for what looked like a summer dollar penny.

Arsenal’s best striker since Henry

It’s safe to say that in the years since Henry’s departure, the first serious success of the striker Arsenal was Robin Van Persy.

The Dutch could be today’s Emirates Persona Non Grata for his move to Manchester United in 2012, but in his final two campaigns with the club, he simply couldn’t be stopped, accumulating a tally of 22 goals and seven assists in 33 games in 2010/11, with 37 goals and 11 assists in 48 games the following year.

Following the departure of the Rotterdam-born poacher, Wenger and Company signed Olivier Giroud for just £12 million from Montpellier, and although he was not as prolific as RVP, he enjoyed a rather successful career in North London.

For example, in five and a half seasons with 253 appearances, the World Cup winner scored 105 goals, provided 37 assists and won three FA Cups.

However, in January 2018, the Chambery-born Marksman was sold to Chelsea, promoting the signature of Borussia Dortmund star Pierre Emerick Aubamiyan.

Gabonese International became the fastest player in the club’s history to score 50 Premier League goals in July 2020, and played a pivotal role in the club’s record 14th FA Cup victory a month later.

However, after signing that September’s blockbuster new deal, the wheels began to fall off and following a shortage of florm and falling fallings flowings with managers, he was allowed to join Barcelona for free in early 2022.

Since then, Arteta has used Gabriel Jesus and Kai Herberts on the top, with the former getting too injured while both players have moments, and the latter still not doing enough for the club to call to sign a new striker.

Unfortunately, Arteta may have already had his answer to those phones of players, compared to Henry having Edu and not selling him in the summer.

The former Arsenal gem compared to Henry

Now, comparing young forwards with the same sensory talent as Henry could be considered unfair, but that was exactly what Sun journalist Jon Boon did with Mika Biereth in July 2021.

It was after Arsenal, who poached young talent from Fulham’s academy that Boone proposed “may be the next Thierry Henry.”

That might sound a bit ridiculous, but he did. Because in just 27 appearances on the youth side of the cottages before the season, Young Dane scored 22 goals and provided 13 assists, at which point he never hit an Arsenal forward for goals and assists from the great Frenchman until Bukayo Saka did it a few years later.

The youngster spent the following season with the youth side of the Gunners, and in the 22/23 campaign he was loaned out to Dutch side RKC Walwicki for the first time, but with just two goals in 12 appearances, it was not a successful stint.

Luckily last season was much better for the younger forward. First, he crossed two spells alongside Motherwell and Sturm Glaz, and he scored nine assists in an impressive tally of 15 goals and 37 appearances.

The “crazy” talent, dubbed by former goal reporter Robin Bearner, picked up where he left off at the start of the campaign, and by January he had already scored 14 goals and provided five assists in just 25 appearances.

Since moving to the French Riviera, the former Arsenal’s outlook has grown from strength to strength, and now looks like one of the most informed strikers in European football, scoring 11 goals and providing three assists in a total of 860 minutes, with 1.16 goals involved or 1.16 goals every 61.42 minutes.

That means Edu let Pittance go in the summer, scoring 25 goals and providing eight assists in just 37 appearances for two teams.

Ultimately, the club may have felt that Vierrez wasn’t enough to play for Arsenal in the long run, but it would certainly have been a sensible idea that gave him a chance, at least this year, as suggests that his form in Monaco has what it takes to thrive in the top five leagues.