Thierry Henry has admitted that coaching at Arsenal was ‘always’ going to be his first step in the new area.
The French legend has been working with the under-18’s and under-19’s at Arsenal as an assistant. The experience is helping the former Gunner towards gaining his coaching badges.
Being in familiar surroundings at London Colney with familiar faces has helped with his learning of the game and what it takes to make the step up to management. Even the Arsenal boss has time in his busy schedule to chat about the game with Henry.
[Arsène Wenger and I] sit sometimes, obviously he has a lot on his plate. We speak about training youngsters and how it’s different to training senior players. We talk about being a manager, we talk about players from the academy. I will ask him questions on how to deal with certain situations. I’m obtaining my badges right now with the Welsh FA and looking to gain the A-licence. It goes without saying that I asked Arsenal if I could do that with them and be involved with the team.
Arsene Wenger is known to have a good relationship with both current and former players and this made it easier for Henry to request the help he needed for his badges. Also having a club legend around youngsters can only inspire them to do better.
I asked the boss and he said to come, train with the under-18s and 19s and help conduct sessions. I’m just an assistant at the minute, I’m not a coach but it’s great, as you can imagine. It’s the place I love, there’s so much emotion for me here so this was always going to be where I wanted to start my coaching.
The former Arsenal frontman also has a style and philosophy he wants to integrate into the team he eventually manages and is figuring out how he can improve on it when things don’t quite go to plan.
I have a certain view of how I would like teams to play but it’s one thing to have a view and another to try and execute it. For example are you still going to maintain that philosophy if you’ve lost two or three games, while fans are upset, the press is having a go and players are storming into your office? It’s all stuff I’m learning. How to stay strong, how to remain in the same direction despite enduring problems.
