Under-pressure Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger shows it’s his way or the highway as Thierry Henry is denied coaching role
Gunners legend and TV pundit will no longer work with club's kids as Wenger prepares for make-or-break title charge
ARSENE WENGER has seen the writing on the Emirates wall and he does not like what it says.
The longest-serving manager in football has entered the final year of his Arsenal contract and is feeling the heat like never before.
Yet the fractious Frenchman is not going to leave quietly and will fight any perceived threat to his authority.
Wenger’s angry fall-out with club legend Thierry Henry underlines his determination to maintain complete control of the club where he has reigned unchallenged for almost 20 years.
Henry was told that he could not continue to coach the club’s Under-18 team while he remained a TV pundit.
The official reason for the shock decision was that Wenger wanted total commitment from all of his staff.
But the reality was that he suspected the club’s greatest ever player was emerging as his possible managerial replacement.
And he was not going to allow Henry to learn his trade at the club’s London Colney headquarters unless he agreed to stay under the radar and commit himself to a virtual gagging order. But Henry could not just turn his back on the six-year deal which he signed with Sky Sports last year.
So Henry will now reluctantly continue to work towards obtaining his Pro Licence coaching badge away from the club where his statue stands proudly outside their stadium.
The ex-France international, 38, has already received offers from a number of Arsenal’s Premier League rivals and is currently weighing up all of his options.
Wenger’s ultimatum was actually delivered at the end of last season but news of Henry’s departure only emerged when he was absent for the start of pre-season training last week.
Wenger, 66, famously hates confrontation but felt compelled to act when Henry was asked to become assistant coach with the Under-18s by academy head Andries Jonker in May.
That job offer was overruled by Wenger despite Henry rejecting a six-figure salary and telling Jonker that he would continue to work for nothing. Henry had worked up to six a days a week helping the Under-18 and Under-19 teams last season, travelling around Europe with the club’s young stars of the future without being paid a penny.
It was shortly after gaining his Uefa A licence in March he wrote in his SunSport column that he had never heard the Arsenal fans as angry as they had been after the home defeat by Swansea.
Wenger’s response was both churlish and childish.
He snapped: “He cannot measure the anger of 60,000 people because he sits in the best seats in the stadium.”
Wenger added that he would demand a face-to-face explanation for the comments, but never said a word to Henry despite both men being at the training ground that day.
Matters were hardly helped when respected French newspaper L’Equipe reported Henry was being lined up as Wenger’s eventual successor.
It is understood that Henry’s representatives discussed Wenger’s Sky ultimatum with a senior member of the club’s hierarchy, who made it clear he sympathised with the club’s 228-goal record scorer but was not prepared to cross the manager.
And therein lies the problem for Arsenal.
For Henry is not the first strong-minded club legend to have his wings clipped by Wenger. Patrick Vieira and Jens Lehmann were also refused the opportunity to join the Arsenal coaching staff.
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Yet the closer Wenger gets to the end of his £8million-a-year contract, the more jealously he guards his power.
It would be unfair to label any of his current coaching staff as ‘yes men’ but it is clear that none of them are regarded as future managerial material.
Wenger, more stubborn than ever as he approaches his 20th anniversary at the helm with the Gunners in October, is convinced that he still has plenty more to offer the club.
He points to the fact that his team enjoyed their highest finish in 11 years last season rather than missing out on a Premier League crown which was theirs for the taking.
Yet he knows that if his side cannot sustain a genuine title challenge this time, it will be impossible for even the most dozy board of directors to offer him a new deal.
He has already started his mind games, suggesting this week that he would be interested in taking on the England job next year.
Such blatant flirting has reaped rich rewards for Wenger in previous years, with the board caving in to all his demands in the face of interest from Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain.
But he might not have it all his own way this time.
This time next year, Henry will complete his Pro Licence and have all the qualifications required to become a Premier League boss.
Fluent in four languages, Henry has won the World Cup, European Championship, Champions League, Premier League and Spanish League as a player.
He has also learned from some of the finest coaching brains in the business during his time at Monaco, Juventus and Barcelona, including new Manchester City chief Pep Guardiola and Bayern Munich boss Carlo Ancelotti.
For the first time this century, Arsene Wenger is no longer the only name in the Arsenal frame.
