Soccer
Jose Mourinho: Sir Bobby's Barcelona Were 'Inches' From Signing Thierry Henry
Jose Mourinho claims he and Sir Bobby Robson came within inches of signing Thierry Henry while the pair were at Barcelona.
Henry, who retired from professional football on Tuesday, was playing for Monaco at the time and signed for Juventus in 1999.
But after only a short time in Turin, Henry linked up with his former boss Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, going on to become one of English football's greatest ever strikers.
And while the Frenchman did eventually get his move to the Camp Nou in 2007, Mourinho revealed just how close he came to joining them more than a decade earlier.
The Chelsea boss told talkSPORT: "When I was an assistant in Barcelona with Mr (Bobby) Robson in 1996 (we tried to sign him). He was in Monaco and he went to Juventus, we lost him by an inch.
"After that he was not on my radar because it was never a possibility to come to my teams. Could you imagine in that moment leaving Arsenal to come to Chelsea? I wouldn't imagine that.
"He's the kind of player that you need forever, especially in the Premier League where he was more than any other place.
"He
was OK in Barcelona and the (France) national team, but the real
Thierry Henry, the player that we are all going to miss for ever, is the
one that made unbelievable seasons and incredible history in the
Premier League.'
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