Thierry Henry to leave coaching role at Arsenal after Arsene Wenger’s rejection

                        Thierry                    (C)Rex

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 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.

Henry and Arsene

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. 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.
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.