MANAGING ARSENAL REMAINS Thierry Henry’s dream job but the former striker knows he has a long way to go before he can replace Arsene Wenger.
Henry announced his retirement on Tuesday after four and a half seasons with New York Red Bulls, and has signed a contract to join Sky Sports as a pundit, although the 37-year-old has long-term plans to become a manager, with one of his former clubs high on his wish list as a future employer.
While working alongside Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher as an on-screen analyst, Henry plans to complete his coaching education and Arsenal looks set to play a key role.
Henry joined Arsenal in 1999 and went on to make 258 Premier League appearances with the club – including a short loan stint from the Red Bulls in the 2011-12 season – scoring 175 goals, and the Frenchman would love to return to the club as manager one day.
“That would be a dream come true but that’s not how it works,” Henry told The Telegraph.
“You have to prove yourself first, you have to learn first. You need to be able to understand what it is to be a manager.
“Can you teach, can you be patient? All these problems. People think they are all managers in their own way but it’s not that easy.
“The plan is to start my badges and I guess Arsenal will help me. To pass your badges, you have to work closely with a club and I would like to think it is going to be Arsenal. You know I’m in London when you see me at Arsenal.
“First and foremost, I don’t know how or when, but everybody knows I would love to go back to Arsenal in some capacity. But I need to be equipped to go back. I want to learn the process, so I have to get my badges and what not. We will see what is going to happen.
“It’s not a secret, everybody talks about me going back to Arsenal and me the same thing, but it doesn’t always work like that. First and foremost, I have to make sure that I have everything on board to be able to go back.
‘The way I was educated’
“Hard work is all I know. It comes from my dad and the guys I played with when I arrived in the national team. [Zinedine] Zidane, [Youri] Djorkaeff, [Lilian] Thuram, [Marcel] Desailly, [Emmanuel] Petit, [Fabian] Barthez, that’s how they were and that’s what they taught me. So I took it on board because you can only be the reflection of your education. That’s the way I was educated, so that’s what I’m going to try to pass on.”
But while coaching is Henry’s long-term goal, he is confident he will make a good TV pundit, claiming he already analyses games at home.
“If I watch a game on Sky with my friends, I will pause it 20,000 times and by the time it starts again, the game is already over, we already know the result, but I’m still pausing it to make my friends understand why something happened or why it shouldn’t have happened,” he said.
“I am bit annoying like this, so it will be good to pause the games as a job.”
You made a show of yourself. From the bus incident to this very day. Used to be a massive Mcgregor fan but lost all respect for him at this stage. Wish he’d actually step away from the sport. They should just call him money Mcgregor
@Willy Motley: all mouth. I never listened to the stuff that went on outside the cage, but watched keenly what happened inside, and there used to be a difference, now he is just a joke inside and outside. He won’t resurrect his career now with all that has happened unless he drops down the weight again.
@Bungee Aky: A fighter that has never successfully defended either title that he won in UFC.. Absolutely joke that he has the name he has..
@Tom Kenny: he did well while he was on the way up, but he cut his own time at the top short and the fall was quicker than the rise. No humility, no class, no longevity. He will be remembered as the best, greatest, brightest flash in the pan that ever happened.
He was more interested in promoting his whiskey..how couldnt you give someone like Khabib no respect, the man never lost a round in 20 odd fights
Who cares ??
@Desmond Cassidy: you do apparently.
If Mcgregor gets another crack at Khabib and beats him then he’ll be a big hero again. But he seems to have lost the hunger. He has shown with Nate Diaz that you can never write him off but he seems to have been on a downward spiral since the Mayweather money rolled in.
@Stanley Baggins:
Motivation or not, he’ll never beat Khabib even if he fights him 100 times.
@Stanley Baggins: lol not happening.
I will give the guy credit for mouthing his way to the top, but not a nice guy in or outside the octagon/ring, he could of really been an Irish legend but his behavior has made him nothing more then a laughing stock, money won’t buy him class something he is seriously lacking,
The money mayweathers ruined him.
Aldo done it for 10 years and was caught naively in 13 seconds as he was beyond wound up.
McGregor lauded his own talking game and aldo never got his rematch shot.
McGregor says he was caught in a fight where he wasn’t up to much and ended in his second loss and should get a rematch just because.
With his stardust waning and a bit of perspective its easier for people to see hes the Kardashian of UFC , took on a persona popular with the majority and played it expertly through modern media.
A distasteful genius with talent in all the wrong places.May he and the rest of the kardashian culture be plagued with no privacy and a life in the public eye for selling there souls for a few million quid.
@baw baw: @baw baw: To write McGregor off as nothing more than Khardasian culture is a bit revisionist, while in recent times he has become a mere parody of himself, it would be foolish to discard how good he was at his peak.
His persona only became what it was through his huge performances on the biggest stage. Against both Mendes and Aldo he heaped pressure on himself by talking a big and confident game and backed it up in the octogon. Without those performances his quick wit would have been nothing more than a cheap novelty. He has proven himself against a lot of top fighters and his lose to Khabib doesn’t take anything away from that.
I do however agree that he is not entitled to an immediate rematch and nor should he want one, he needs to tune up, get a few wins under his belt and his head back in the game before he could pose any threat to Khabib.
The idea that he could come back after two years on the session and beat him in the first place was ludicrous and thinking he could jump straight back in with him now is even more so.