Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit has lifted the lid on an ongoing spat between Arsene Wenger and former players Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry.
The Gunners all-time top goalscorer Henry had asked to take over a role to coach Arsenal’s Under-18 side this season, but the French boss rejected his approach, and he has since taken up a role under Roberto Martinez as Belgium assistant manager.
The striker has now pulled out of the coming Arsenal Legends match against AC Milan’s equivalent, and tension is believed to be increasing.
Emmanuel Petit has now opened up on the current issues between Wenger and his former players, naming Patrick Vieira as ‘digusted’ by the manager at present.
Petit said: ‘Why didn’t Arsene open the door to Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira or Tony Adams?
‘I spoke with Patrick for two hours and I can say – and maybe he will not be happy that I am saying this in public – he is really disgusted by Arsenal and Arsene’s attitude.’
How about the current staff in charge? Just fire and replace them with club legends? who does not have good enough experience in coaching?
Barcelona even have former Barcelona B player as their goalkeeping coach!
It is down to commitment, experience and knowledge. Sure these legends has the knowledge, but commitment and experience in coaching? Doubt it! Look at Henry, he is still in the media constantly, Vieira? he is looking for big bucks in man city and now in the US,only because of his name.
Its only Bergkamp who are probably focusing in possible managerial roles in the future. Watch an interview by ArsenalfanTV with Jon Smith, you will understand football is more complicated than it is.
Agreed and he brought in Steve Bould who was a legend Gooner. Arsenal didnt need Viera & I’m sure he would have gone to Citeh for the big bucks anyway. Henry was learning and Wenger gave him a position as manager of under 18’s. Henry obviously cares more about punditry than managing or he would have quit Sky. It’s all about the money.
I guess Bould is those types of yes-yes-boss kinds of people.. Vieira and Henry have criticized Wenger for the way he runs the club, and the dictator thought bringing back these guys will bite him in the a** pretty soon.
Henry criticized Wenger as a pundit, that’s why he was given the cold shoulder. when did Henry start as a pundit? Wenger didn’t see that from the beginning? the moment he criticized the dictator was the moment he was given the hard choice to make; be quiet and let the prof do his things without questioning him, or be free and question every move he make whenever he makes mistakes.. for the love of the club we saw what Henry chose
You can’t have your own coach critise you on-air, it will damage the squads confidence and harmony. Managers need to be a ruthless dictator to succeed, sometime I feel Wenger is not ruthless enough.
thought the punditry job involves one to be unbiased. no matter how much you love your club, when a clear conversation arises and its true, no matter how much your love is, you need to speak the truth.. the truth that someone could not take and hates to be criticized.
That’s why you cannot be a manager and a pundit at the same time. How loyal are Vieira and Henry anyway to Arsenal?? Sure they have contributed greatly to Arsenal but I can’t say they are loyal
@Sea monkey UK
You talk about Veira chasing money! What about Wenger penny pinching on everything except his own salary.
Among this legends, I can see only Bergkamp or Steve Bould who could manage Arsenal one day with their commitment and dedication to this job. Tony Adams was close but he just turned off the way to Arsenal for “Chinese millions pounds challenge”. Can’t blame him either.
Thank You. I thought I was all alone on this one. I suggested this same thought in earlier posts but I was attacked by many for daring to say anything remotely negative about Henry.
Nice to know fans can recognize common sense and reality over some blind allegiance to a former player. First, it is not axiomatic that a former player will become a good coach. It takes hard work, discipline, sacrifice and, like it or not, a willingness to follow the dictates of the manager in charge. You don’t get to call all the shots just because you are a club legend.
TBH, I was almost fed up with this site for the negative effect of the wider social media on us Arsenal fans. But I’m Justarsenal so I couldn’t quit. I kept checking all the time. Today am happy with most of the comments and I hope all of us will be most happy at the end of the season.
We must not allow divisions among us even though we might analyze issues differently. Fans could be more loyal than ‘legends’. They left at some point but we never.COYG
That Petit guy is a fraud. I always listen to his comments regarding Arsenal during match analysis, he is forever negative about Arsenal.
I’m surprised at the thumbs down. I have the same observation about him over Super Sports. He never sounds Arsenal really, always negative!
I also watch Supersport so at half time or on match build up I switch to other channels to save myself from the negativeity.
I know lately we blame Wenger for almost everything. In this case, I won’t blame him. I doubt Viera and Henry are committed. I see Bergkamp back at Arsenal if given the chance…
Bergkamp said clearly he does not want to be manager/head coach. We all know that his travel is limited due to the fact that he does not fly. As a second coach probably he will not refuse. As for Vieira, well he is a coach now. Results speaks for themselves. Henry is assistant for a national team, hardly a real manager job. I guess the big buck speaks louder than allegiance for the club. I am not rich, so probably I don’t understand it but if I had Henry’s money and I really wanted to coach at Arsenal I wouldn’t have cared for punditry (at which he sucks anyway). We know how pundits fare when they are put in charge. Shearer, Neville etc etc they really suck at this job. Is not for everyone.
Why are some of these so-called legends acting and going as if the club or the manager owes them something? When in fact it’s the other way around.
If you took the the arsenal chapter out of their career, they’re all virtually nobody.. petit only became world-class after he sign with us then flopped at barca and every where else he went after.
Viere joined us as a nobody and became world-class under wenger tutelage as well then flopped after he left.
If wenger had sign the young henry in this transfer window he would’ve been stoned to death like Stephen, however due to wenger tutelage also he’s up to this day still the best premier league striker ever.
The only one id cut some slack is bergkamp because after been risen from the dead like Lazarus from internazionale, he gave us his all and retired with us.
In truth i would hope some of the pass players would get involve with the club and probably one becomes the head coach after Wenger reign has ended, But some of the names mention are they really genuine.
Henry, from what i have seen of Henry i do not think its money that is his motivation but the need to be in the lights in front of the camera that drives him. i strongly believe if your are a coach you have to be fully committed to your program.
Viera can criticize as much as he wants, but if you are so committe volunteer your services with the junior squad and then grow from their, but in his eyes money comes first.
In Viera and Henry i do not think they have fully grasp the idea of coaching and are perhaps more suited for other roles which would prove beneficial them, just not for ARSENAL.
Players i think has the capacity to lead ARSENAL of the future, would be Berkamp and Pires