Henry’s rant at Hernandez was punditry gone mad

If Thierry Henry’s reaction to Javier Hernandez’s celebrations after scoring the late winning goal that propelled Real Madrid into the Champions League semi-finals is anything to go by then we are sucking the joy out of football. We are wrapping ourselves so far in the cult of personality that it is suffocating the sport. We are incapable of simply enjoying the moment and letting a good story be told.

Quite what possessed Henry, in his role as a pundit for Sky Sports, to turn on Hernandez was unfathomable.

It was churlish and it looked sour — even if he will argue he was trying to make the point it is the team that matters.

But it added very little to what he is being paid handsomely for: To be an analyst; to provide some worthwhile insight; to enjoy the game.

Henry’s point was that Hernandez should have celebrated his 88th-minute goal with Cristiano Ronaldo, who superbly provided the assist, rather than run off wildly in the opposite direction (even if his momentum evidently turned him that way) to celebrate on his own in front of the Real fans. But, to be frank, that is some kind of sporting correctness gone mad.

“That’s Ronaldo’s goal,” the Frenchman complained. He said it on more than one occasion. It sounded petulant. “It’s a tap-in,” the former striker added.

“Turn around and celebrate with Ronaldo. Even the camera knew — the camera is on Ronaldo for a reason.” The camera is always on Ronaldo, Thierry. Just as it was always on you. That is because he is Ronaldo, and because you are Thierry Henry.

Ronaldo is one of the two best players in the world and one of the all-time best, just as Henry is; he is box office and was the star on the pitch in that semi-final against Atletico Madrid, just as he is in every game he plays. He is a far better player than Hernandez. He knows that. Hernandez knows that. We all know that.

But it was not Ronaldo’s goal. The spotlight does not always have to be on him. He has scored bucketloads of them for Real.

Henry should have rightly analysed the role Ronaldo played in creating the goal — the Portuguese can be a fantastic creator of goals and a selfless team player at times — and spoken about that. He should not have turned it into a criticism of Hernandez. It did not have to be negative.

Ronaldo did brilliantly to set up Hernandez — not quite a tap in, but not the most difficult of strikes — although there was a far more perceptive comment from Henry’s fellow analyst Graeme Souness when he asked whether Ronaldo would have ferried the ball on to his team-mate, rather than shoot at goal himself had the Atletico defender Miranda not tugged him.

Either way, Hernandez scored. “What I don’t like is Chicharito seems like he’s won the World Cup with that,” Henry added. Given Hernandez is Mexican there is little chance of that happening. So this was his World Cup final. Why try to spoil it for him? Why not let him celebrate?

Hernandez had scored the goal that took Real Madrid into the semi-finals of the Champions League in what is likely to be his only season at the club, where he is on loan from Manchester United.

Hernandez is 26, but has no future with Real — he is unlikely to start that semi-final and will be consigned to the bench, at best, when the club’s star players are fit again — and it was hammered home to him by the local media that he needed to play the game of his life.

He has no future, either, at United, where he has one year left on his contract after this season.

His last appearance for them was to play the full 90 minutes in the 4-0 Capital One Cup humiliation away to MK Dons in August, when he was awful. Hernandez was an unused substitute in the following United game, the goalless draw away to Burnley, before being loaned out.

He has been a bit-part player at Real — as he probably expected to be — figuring in 718 minutes so far this season.

It has been a struggle for him, as Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti conceded after the semi-final. This is as good as it might get for the forward.

“I was the one who scored,” Hernandez later said, before adding: “But it belongs to everyone. The people who believed in me, my team-mates and my family.”

Maybe Henry will add that, once again, Hernandez failed to acknowledge Ronaldo by name.

It is all the stranger because the attack was on Hernandez, generally regarded as one of the least troublesome professionals at the higher end of the game.

“He’s such a great professional. He never complains,” said Alex Ferguson of the player who was the super-sub at United under the Scot.

Why try to deny him his moment in the spotlight, his moment of celebration?

Is it not the essence of sport for someone who has been frustrated, who has maybe lost his way and is not sure of his future, to eclipse the star names around him for one glorious evening?

It is a story. It is cathartic.

Henry is believed to be the highest paid pundit on Sky’s roster. Maybe he felt the pressure to be controversial and stoke a reaction with what he said about Hernandez.

But what he said did not do justice to the game, occasion or sportsmen involved, nor did it provide perceptive analysis. It was not punditry.

The Daily Telegraph

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jason Burt is The Daily Telegraph’s deputy football correspondent.