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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has delivered an extraordinary ultimatum to Thierry Henry, arguably the greatest player in the club's history. Wenger has ruled that Henry can only have a coaching role with Arsenal's academy if he devotes himself full-time and relinquishes his Sky Sports punditry duties. The Gunners boss feels his fellow Frenchman cannot work within the club during the week and then criticise their players at the weekend.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/...er-arsene-wen/
It's best Henry doesn't pick up anything from him as a coach.
Not really fussed about Henry being part of the set up. I think it was a PR stunt from the club. Coaching the under 18s seems like a token role more than anything else. Arteta moving over to City bothers me more because we've heard how smart and good he is with the players and it would make sense to want to retain talent like that. I guess the bright side is that he'll learn from one of the best coaches in the game. The real worry for us is who will succeed Wenger. It can't come from within the ranks. In fact, if the club had plans of grooming Henry for the role, it's a bad move. What good would it be he learning from the under 18s coach anyway?Quote:
Arsene Wenger has rejected an offer from Arsenal legend Thierry Henry to work for the club for free with the record goalscorer poised to become the latest in a long line of players to start his coaching career elsewhere.
Henry was offered a job coaching Arsenal’s Under-18s by head of the academy Andries Jonker, only to be personally overruled by Wenger.
Despite his statue sitting outside the Emirates Stadium, Henry joins the likes of Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars and, most recently, Mikel Arteta in making the move into coaching away from manager Wenger and Arsenal.
Having completed his A licence coaching qualification while working with Arsenal’s kids, Henry must now coach a team to get his Uefa pro licence and had hoped to do so with the Gunners’ Under-18s.
Wenger, though, informed Henry that a position with the Under-18s must be a full-time role and cannot be combined with his work for Sky television.
Henry was critical of Arsenal's performances last season during his punditry work for Sky Sports CREDIT: REX
Henry responded by offering to work with Under-18s coach Kwame Ampadu without collecting a wage, while still fulfilling his Sky obligations, but Wenger turned him down.
An offer to coach the club’s strikers was also rejected by the 66-year-old. While senior figures inside the Emirates were happy for Henry to stay and continue his education at Arsenal, a final decision was left down to Wenger.
Sources around Arsenal believe Wenger does not want anybody at the club’s London Colney training ground who may be prepared to challenge him or be seen as a possible threat to his position in the future.
Wenger was unhappy with comments Henry made on Sky last season, claiming he had never seen the Arsenal fans so unhappy, even though the 38-year-old has always been supportive of his old manager.
Henry had been a popular figure among the Arsenal players, young and old. Theo Walcott was just one Arsenal first-team star who went on record as saying that he had benefitted from his presence at the training ground.
The reason given to Henry that he cannot combine coaching the Under-18s with his Sky work does not entirely stack up, given Vieira was not allowed a senior role at Arsenal under Wenger even though he did not have any other commitments.
Vieira accepted a youth development role at Manchester City in 2011 and worked his way up the ranks before being put in charge of New York City, who are owned by City, in November last year.
It is still a source of embarrassment to many people who work at Arsenal that Vieira has played a key role in City becoming a fierce rival of the Gunners.
City will have another former Arsenal star playing a key coaching role for them next season after Arteta accepted a position in Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff.
The 34-year-old had been groomed for a coaching position at Arsenal, but Wenger stalled over how he could fit Arteta into his staff, allowing Guardiola to make him a first-team coach.
The former Barcelona manager referenced the importance of the Spaniard in his first City press conference.
Bergkamp turned down an offer to scout for Arsenal and Wenger after retiring from playing, and instead returned to Ajax to start a coaching career that saw him promoted to assistant manager under Frank de Boer.
Overmars also went back to Holland and is director of football at Ajax, having started work as a youth coach in 2011.
Wenger has allowed a number of his old players back to Arsenal in temporary roles and working with the junior teams, but only former defender Steve Bould has managed to hold down a long-term position in his backroom staff.
Bould was head coach of the Under-18s before he became Wenger’s assistant, following the retirement of Pat Rice in 2012.
Wenger’s snub has left Henry having to look for a different club to complete his pro licence at and the Frenchman is understood to be considering numerous offers from the Premier League and abroad.
Quote right too. Do it properly or don't do it at all.
Why is this has-been old loser issuing ultimatums to winners?
And if we're talking about ultimatums - Hey Wenger! 12 years is a piss-take mate. Get your fucking finger out or piss off!
You can start by signing a strikernew 3 year contract. :doh:
The control freak is at it again, as usual he's embarrassing himself.
He should think himself lucky a player of Henrys calibre is even interested.
Well going by the inane comments Henry provides every week on Sky, he hasn't shown himself to be the next managerial legend in the making.
You can't have someone working for the club and then going on TV to criticise his employers.
Nothing wrong with constructive criticism, at the end of the day they club don't do things the right way as everyone knows, so they are bound to be criticised.
Sure if you're in a dictatorial setup then criticism doesn't work, but any other circumstances it's fine to give your opinion on what needs to change.
The issue is we don't like to be put on the spot of questioned about our methods because we always think we're right, the screening of the questions at the AGM is one example, so is the criticism and blaming of the fans.
Why is Wenger a pundit then? If he's commenting on the French game, which he was, and Giroud plays shit then is he supposed to lie to avoid a conflict of interests? He should practise what he preaches first and then start laying down the law. It's true enough, none of them should be pundits. The conflict of interests is clear. And what sort of expertise is Wenger providing anyway? How to lose a title to Leicester? How to be shit in the CL? How to always leave a club short of the players it needs?
Pot calling the kettle black really, the guy has one rule for himself and another rule for others and frankly what is he doing being a pundit in the 1st place, I don't see other managers doing it when they are employed, he already gets 8 million a year FFS, he should be doing what he's paid to do and recruiting players whilst he has the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
The old saying that nobody is as big as the club doesn't apply to us. Clearly this is Arsene FC. Arsenal FC is just the brand name. He's driven away everyone bar Bould, and by the look of it Bould is allowed fuck all say in anything anyway. This old has-been needs to go and somebody in the boardroom needs to find their balls. Won't happen though. Instead they'll roll out the red carpet for another 3 years of miserly misery. Fuck the fans, fuck the football, just keep that cash pouring in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim