You make some good points, some of which I agree with and some I don't.
I could make various points about Henry's deficiencies - his lack of team spirit, his sulking, his morale-sapping put-downs of team-mates, and often his lazy work rate for example.
Whether I agreed with this or not ( I don't) It bears no relevance on Henry as a player ready to deliver the goods.
But if Henry is still such an amazingly fantastic player and still so superior to Berbatov, then ask yourself this:
Why has he been sold for much less money than Berbatov would fetch if he was placed on the market?
First of all, until bids are placed and made public, you have no idea how much Berbatov would or would not fetch. Secondly, if Berbatov wanted out, the price spurs could get if Berbatov only wanted to go to one club instead of on to an open market (sparking a bidding war, perhaps..) would decrease dramatically. Thirdly, in an open market I don't think Henry would be sold for less than Berbatov would be.
If the answer is age and being injury prone, then that is a factor in determining who'd make the better signing now - which is the question I asked in opening this thread.
If the answer is that he wanted to leave, that doesn't explain it. Carrick wanted to leave but we still got 18.6m for him even in last year's much less inflated market.
If the answer is that only Barca wanted him, that doesn't explain it either. It begs the question as to why there wasn't a global scramble of clubs bidding for his services. And Man. U were the only serious bidders for Carrick, but we still got that 18.6m
And to this;
1. Intra-PL transfers are notoriously exorbitant. The PL 'tax' clubs pay is absurd and well out of keeping with the world markets, hence, if Henry would invite it, the price an English club would pay for him would be astronomical.
2. Henry stated he would only leave Arsenal for Barca. This closed down any room for negotiation on a price. Barca
didn't need Henry, they coveted him, though. That gives them leverage in any negotiation, not Arsenal.
2i. Manchester United are notoriously poor in the transfer market, we always pay more than other clubs and Spurs took advantage of our
need for the player that they did not want to sell. That gives them leverage in any negotiation, not Manchester United.
2ii. Barcelona are very good negotiators in the market for the most part, they nearly always get players for the right money - they are rarely ripped off.
3. Outside of speculation we have facts. And the facts are that Henry is a prolific player who is proven on all fronts as a PL performer. On the other hand, Berbatov hasn't even gotten past his second season here and maintained or bettered the form shown in the first.
Henry is better than Berbatov at
everything outside of heading a ball; faster; stronger; more assists; more goals. The only possible avenue for choosing Berbatov over him would be their ages and the possiblity of a re-sell on Bervatov a few years down the road. If they were both in the PL next season you'd get extremely long odds on Berbatov outdoing Henry at anything. Since Ruud has gone, Henry was out there on his own as the best goalscorer in the league, one injury that just required rest would not change people's perceptions of him as being the top dog in the league as far as strikers go (Rooney is not a striker.)