In what has been rather surprising news today, Thierry Henry has supposedly been axed from his position as a coach at Arsenal!
The news report has come a bit out of the blue, with no previous suggestions that there was anything wrong with Henry’s participation at the club. However his current association with Arsenal has been terminated, with the Wenger no longer happy with Henry’s activities with coaching the youth ranks.
Henry was supposedly offered the role of being the head coach of the Arsenal Under 18’s team, as Henry works towards his full coaching licence. Henry has shown to be a promising and much favoured coach at Arsenal, largely due to the admiration and experience that young players see in him, as well as the fact that he has a wealth of practical footballing skill and knowledge.
However apparently Wenger has given Thierry a choice of either Arsenal or SkySports, as the position is full time and he cannot work for both.
Wenger wants Henry to focus on his coaching and Arsenal full time, instead of being tied up with commitments to SkySports on the weekend. Henry is currently a regular SkySports pundit and so his regular commitment to the organisation means that he would currently be unable to take up a ‘full time’ position at Arsenal. Wenger is also supposedly concerned about how Henry may be working with the ranks at Arsenal in the week, but then potentially criticising the first team on the weekends, when working with SkySports.
It’s a strange situation at Arsenal and one that I’m struggling to find an decisive opinion on. It’s very surprising for Wenger to come out and criticise arguably his best and the club’s best ever player, however I can see Wenger’s reasoning and concern about Henry’s other commitments. The biggest concern from this however, is that he is unlikely to chose Arsenal over Sky. If he can keep his £4m a year contract at Sky, as well as coach elsewhere, then Henry may see that as the more favourable option.
Therefore it seems increasingly likely he will be moving away from the Emirates to continue coaching, as have the likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Mikel Arteta. But maybe his dream is to become a manager at Arsenal one day?
Is Wenger right to force him to choose?
By AH