Henry Praise For Denilson

Thierry Henry has praised Brazilian youngster Denilson for the speed that he has adapted to life in the Premiership.

Denilson signed for Arsenal on transfer deadline day back in August, a transfer that received little media attention as William Gallas and fellow Brazilian Julio Baptista arrived at the same time.

When his transfer did eventually receive attention from the press in England and Brazil pundits and journalists alike were surprised. He had played only a handful of games for Sao Paulo and wasn`t viewed as that good-a-prospect.

The story of how he was discovered is quite an interesting one. Arsenal`s Brazilian scout was watching another prospect – Ramon when he spotted Denilson. He was unimpressed by Ramon but Denilson caught his eye. He got straight onto Arsenal`s head scout Steve Rowley who was soon on a plane to watch him. He was equally impressed and recommended him to Wenger. The rest is history.

Brazilian`s are notorious for having great difficulty settling into the English game but Denilson took it all in his stride. He has a bit of everything and I, like most Arsenal fans are drooling at the thought of him having a regular place in the team alongside Cesc Fabregas.

‘I have never seen in my years here a player who has developed so quickly to the English game as Denilson,’ Henry said.

‘He comes from the Brazilian league where the game is much slower and to acclimatise this quickly is amazing – and especially to do this in the midfield, where in England there is always so much pressure, but he already seems to have so much time.’