THIERRY HENRY STILL believes that he can be a successful coach despite falling flat at Monaco, as the former Arsenal star waits for his next chance to prove himself as a manager.
The French legend took charge at his former club in October 2018 following Leonardo Jardim’s dismissal, stepping into a Monaco team in a relegation fight.
That fight got no better under Henry, who was sacked just three months later and replaced by Jardim after four wins and five draws from 20 matches in charge.
But Henry says that, despite that setback, he still sees himself as someone that can coach at a top-level club if just given the chance.
“I don’t think about the negative, I think about the positive. That’s why I went to Monaco and that’s why I still want to be a coach. You think about having a positive impact,” he told the Telegraph.
Call me crazy if you want, but I love football and I believe I can be a successful coach. I’m not thinking about the pain, I’m not thinking about failure. I don’t like easy.
“I like to lead and it’s on me to make it happen. The same when I joined Arsenal as a player, the same when I went to Belgium with Roberto. It’s an evolution.
“Communication and honesty from the start is key. What’s the job? Is the job to stay up, is the job to win the League or be in the Champions League?
“But how and what is success? Is success improving players? Ultimately, results are the most important thing, but I want to improve players as well.”
Henry acknowledges that his time at Monaco is poor, but the legendary striker also says he stepped into a task that was quite difficult.
The Frenchman was handed a squad that ended up finishing 17th at the end of the season under Jardim.
Henry also says he expected to be given more time to fix the team and mould it to his vision, but he was never given that time as Monaco moved on in an attempt to secure their survival from relegation.
“There is something I always say,” Henry said.
You win or you learn, and, as you can imagine, I learned a lot. I still have Monaco in my heart, it’s the club that gave me my first opportunity as a player and gave me my first opportunity as a coach, so I will always be thankful to the people who gave me that, people who are there, some are gone.
“My heart talked at the time. I wanted to go back to where I started everything. I have zero regrets about what happened. It was a very difficult task and I felt that if I’d had more time I could have done more. But if you don’t get results, no matter what the circumstances, you have to go.
“All I would say is that if you don’t pass that line and sit on the bench, then you don’t know everything. I’ve heard a lot of people give their opinion on what happened at Monaco and, boy, they were wrong, but I will never go into details.
“If I knew I only had three months, then maybe I would have acted a different way, but I was trying to plan something for the future and doing that in such a little amount of time is very difficult.
“I’m proud of what we did achieve with such a young team. We had to win in Caen and Amiens, and those six points were very important. I had no doubt that team was going to stay up because there was enough quality.
“I came out of it fully reassured that’s what I want to do, zero doubt about it. I saw some of my ex-coaches after I left and they said ‘now you can say you are a coach because you’ve been sacked. Now you are a coach Thierry’. I am not complaining and I can only say thank you to everybody, but to build a legacy and build something for the future, it takes time.”
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I thought Barcelona are over a billion in debt & now they are spending €1.5 billion on their stadium and they also want to buy Mohammed Salah?
Wha?
@O’Brien Michael: I’ve come to learn that when rich people and teams are in debt it’s not the same as us being in debt. They can always find someone else to lend them more
@O’Brien Michael: They have signed a huge sponsorship deal with Spotify including the naming rights to the Camp Nou. Once they satisfy the Spanish league funding requirements they can sign who they want.
Woe and betide any financial institution that try to foreclose on Barca
@thomas walsh: yes but surely someone at some stage is going to have to say enough is enough.
We are not even talking about being millions in debt we are talking billions now.
Barcelona just defy belief what they are at.
@Diarmuid: how much is the sponsorship deal worth Diarmuid?
@Diarmuid: did the tour of the nou camp about 7-8 years back,cost about 15 euros each at the time. Place was full of people,bus’s and bus’s everywhere.Think it costs about 60 now to do the tour won’t get as many doing it.
@O’Brien Michael: if memory serves me think it’s worth around €300 million over 4 years
@Joe Gorham: Joe I done the tour in summer 2019. Think it was around €30 each well worth. €60 certainly seems a huge increase.
@O’Brien Michael: This is an infrastructural project and the loans will be separate to the current debt to be paid back over 35 years. The idea is that the extra income from the expansion and upgrade will pay off the construction loans.
It’s also not just the stadium. There will also be a new Blaugrana indoor arena, offices, a hotel and a new museum.
@Diarmuid: it does lad I work with just back from Barcelona and he said it’s too dear now to do unless your a barca fan.
Ed Sheeran playing a heap of gigs
Cork county board are project managing the build. Should only cost about 3 Billion
accbank still handing out loans