Henry slams MLS salary cap

New York Red Bulls' Thierry Henry has criticised the Major League Soccer's salary cap policy after watching fellow striker Kenny Cooper leave the club.



Cooper, who was the Red Bulls' top scorer last season with 18 goals, was traded to FC Dallas in early February to free up some space on the cap and Henry has publicly criticised the 'American way' of dealing with players.



"As you know here, with salary cap and all of that, that's the only reason why he left. It wasn't for a football reason," the 35-year-old told the MLS's official website.



"If you're in any other league in the world, you keep your good players. Not in this league.



"That's just the way it is and that's why most of the time you see players [moving] and being traded. It is an American way of dealing with things, salary cap, draft, trade."



The former Arsenal man says the MLS should adopt a more European approach when it comes to player transfers as he believes this will allow teams to hang on to their best players, instead of trading them because of salary cap issues.



"In Europe, we don't do that. In Europe, if you perform for your team, you're sure of staying," Henry added.



"But here it's different and if you want to be compared to some of the big leagues in Europe, something has to be changed. I don't know what, but something has to be changed."

Henry not thinking about retirement

Thierry Henry says he is focused on seeing out the remaining two years of his contract at the New York Red Bulls.



The 35-year-old, who is entering his 19th professional season, has spoken about his desire to become a coach, with some speculating that he could replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal at some stage.



But on the subject of retirement, Henry said: "You're going a bit too far. There's two more years, let's see what happens.



"Right now, it's still two years [left on my contract] so I'm good with that if they are good with that too.



"I'm going to honor my contract and see what happens."



And new sporting director Roxburgh told Goal.com that the subject of extending Henry's deal had not yet arisen, adding: "I spoke with Thierry Henry at some length before I even came here.



"The first thing was about how he wanted the team to be professional, to have a good team and to see us going in the right direction. Those are the expectations at this moment."



Henry made his professional debut in August 1994 as a member of AS Monaco, and has gone on to score 340 goals and make 178 assists in 725 club appearances for sides including Arsenal and Barcelona.