‘Shall I leave now?’ – Thierry Henry reacts to Clint Dempsey’s Spurs prediction

Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry remarked that he could not look at Clint Dempsey after the American tipped Tottenham Hotspur to be his surprise package in this season’s Champions League.

Tottenham kick off their involvement in Group D this evening when they host Marseille in north London.

The ex-Spurs forward was part of the punditry panel for CBS Sports alongside Henry and Jamie Carragher last night and was asked who he is tipping for Champions League success come the end of the campaign.

Tottenham are taking part in the competition for the first time in two and a half years after pipping Arsenal to fourth place at the end of last season and will take on Marseille, Sporting and Eintracht Frankfurt in the group stages.

Dempsey told CBS Sports (07/09/22): “I’ll pick a dark horse, I’m not biased at all but I think maybe Tottenham.”

His answer was met with laughter from Carragher and Henry replied: “Shall I leave now? What!”

Dempsey continued: “Conte is a winner, baby. Maybe not necessarily having a good record in the Champions League, I think it’s them [Tottenham]. They are looking like they have gone from strength to strength and have done well in the transfer window.”

SpursWeb Opinion

Henry cannot hear a good word said about Tottenham and will still be hurting from the fact his bitter rivals pipped Arsenal to the last qualification spot after the Gunners capitulated with three games left to go.

While Dempsey is showing some bias, we have seen in previous Champions League campaigns that a mixture of kind draws in the knockout stages coupled with an upset can land you in the latter stages of the competition.