Thierry Henry: Any Hope for the Great Player as a Manager?

On Friday’s match, Thierry Henry, the Montreal Impact Coach took a knee for the first 8.46 minutes of the game in memory of George Floyd and in support of Black Lives Matter, but can the legend rescue his coaching career?

Premier League great and Arsenal legend, Thierry Henry, started his managerial career as a Belgium national team assistant coach on the 26th of August 2016. He was Roberto Martinez’s right hand for a total of 30 games. 

Taking Belgium to a third place in the 2018 World Cup in Brazil was the major highlight of their working partnership. He left this role to become AS Monaco, his boyhood club, head coach on the 13th of October 2018. 

The one-time former World Cup winner, Henry took the job of managing a Major League Soccer club side, Montreal Impact late last year and he has actively been on it for over 241 days now.  

In his 103 days as Monaco manager, before he was sacked a few months after his appointment, he was only able to achieve a 25%-win ratio – 5 wins, 4 draws and 11 defeats in 20 games. 

Although the whole responsibility of his poor winning figures as the head coach of the Ligue 1 club side didn’t only rest on his shoulder – the vice-president of AS Monaco (Vadim Vasilyev) admitted that the club took a share in blame on how the club was poorly performing then: “Our club is going through a very challenging period. I am ready to admit that I personally bear the responsibility for this. We have to acknowledge that during the summer transfer window, we sold too many key players and, despite considerable investments, mistakes were made with respect to their replacement. This didn’t allow us to create a new, competitive team.” 

Also, some of his key players missed out on some matches due to injuries – another tangible reason good enough to be attached to his untimely tenure at AS Monaco. 

Nevertheless, there were lots of questions regarding Henry’s attitudes on and off the pitch during his time at AS Monaco that led one way or the other to his failure while in charge of the French club side. He had clashes with some of his own players (on matchdays, during, press conferences) and oppositions’ players on one or two occasions in his few months as Monaco manager. 

 The current Montreal Impact boss, Henry has lost twice, drew four times and won just a game in six matches since he took over as the MLS side head coach in November 2019. 

Thierry Henry will have to let go of his negative tactics and immature management he’s known for during his time as AS Monaco gaffer if he really wants to rewrite his coaching career history. Also, to have a second chance of becoming a big European club side coach in the nearest future he needs to make a big difference now at Montreal Impact football club.