Thierry Henry - The Manager Looking for Redemption
From MLS Star to MLS coach, Henry's journey from player to manager will be one to watch with interest
For all his greatness, success and consistency on the pitch. It’s fair to say since the move to the United States back in 2010, Thierry Henry’s career has entered the yo-yo phase.
After departing Barcelona, Henry signed a multi-year contract with MLS side New York Red Bulls in July 2010. While the trophies in his time at New York dried up, his thirst for goals never faded.
52 goals in 135 appearances in all competitions is certainly a record most “over-the-hill” footballers would be pleased with: for Henry, it was just another day at the office. With his playing career, wind-down was merely the starting point for the next step of this magician’s footballing journey. He wanted to start coaching.
After four years playing stateside, and subsequent retirement from the game in 2014, the opportunity to coach came with his nearest and dearest. At Arsenal. Having earned a UEFA A Licence, Henry began working with Arsenal’s youth teams and was later offered the job of under-18 coach by Academy head Andries Jonker, but the decision was overruled by Arsene Wenger, who wanted a full-time coach for the team. That’s despite Henry’s offer to work the role for free.
With the door slammed shut at the Emirates, the next move surprised many. Roberto Martinez was appointed head coach of the Belgium national team. He brought in Henry as a second assistant coach.
His involvement in that coaching setup had stars of the team gushing. Romelu Lukaku praised Henry for his work with him. “Thierry for me is the best. Every day whether it is positive and negative I take it in my stride because I know what is expected from the top level.”
At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Henry and the rest of the Belgium team picked up the bronze medal, after losing to eventual-winners France in the semi-final. And shortly after, he was promoted to first assistant coach. But that tenure was short-lived as one of his former clubs came calling.
A disastrous campaign in Ligue 1 left Monaco lying 18th in the table. Leonardo Jardim, who had won the title two seasons before, was out the door and the opportunity of a lifetime for Henry became reality two days after Jardim’s sacking.
Henry was back home, at the club where his professional playing career began in 1994.
“This club will always have a big place in my heart, so to be able to come here and start again, it is a dream come true,” said Henry at his first press conference.
Despite the mass gathering and suited up Frenchman, his demeanour resembled that of a child who had just discovered the shopping aisle with the sweets and treats in. He looked happy but immature. Ultimately, the dream quickly morphed into spectacular failure – and Henry only had himself to blame. At age 41, and just four years into retirement, Henry’s lack of maturity proved his undoing.
Although he did oversee the rare good result – including important draws with Marseille and Nice in the league and progress to the semi-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue – he often acted as a member of the squad, rather than the manager.
What followed was the public humiliation of then-17-year old Benoit Badiashile. December 2018, before a UEFA Champions League game with Borussia Dortmund, after answering questions, both player and manager headed for the exit door. Badiashile left without tucking his chair under the table – an act Henry took great offence to.
The man in charge called the teenager back before ordering him to move his chair under the table in front of a flock of news-hungry journalists. The act was seen by many as a positive trait: Henry’s authoritarian leadership qualities; but the reality was very different.
Reports began to surface that the club’s training sessions were littered with unprofessionalism on his part. Team tactics were constantly chopped and changed with players often playing out of position – midfielder Aleksandr Golovin deployed as a striker the prime example.
Of course, injuries did not help. More than a dozen first-team players were unavailable at various times, that’s what prompted Henry to make an SOS call to his former teammate Cesc Fabregas who joined the club from Chelsea.
Henry’s immaturity reached peak levels during a 5-1 defeat to Strasbourg. If losing by a four-goal margin was not humiliation enough, the news after the game was a disaster. Henry was caught on camera shouting defamatory comments towards an opposition player’s grandmother.
Behaviour that appeared so opposite to the performance Henry produced in front of the world when he publicly condemned the ‘disrespectful’ act of a 17-year old just a month before.
It was the last straw. A group of senior players reacted by requesting a meeting with the board. The club took the players seriously and on 24 January 2019, were quick to dismiss Henry.
Henry disappeared for 10 months before the chance of redemption came up. This time, it was back in the MLS.
Henry stated he had to "confront" the disappointment of his short stint as manager of Monaco, before undertaking a new job. That new job was at Montreal Impact.
After watching his team concede off a corner kick in his debut match, Impact turned the tide to beat Bruce Arena’s New England Revolution.
"I keep on saying since I've been here that we have to fight, that’s the minimum that we have to do,” said Henry in February.
The signs are there for Henry to not only pass down his footballing aura but to harness it into something greater. Let’s hope he’s learnt his lessons from his unmitigated horror show in France and can find the road to redemption.