how the move happened, he affords himself
a wry smile. “Well, I was available!” he says.
“I knew MLS pretty well – I played there for
four and a half years. Montreal is a fantastic
town, a North American town with a massive
European vibe. I thought it would be good
for me, and a learning curve.”
That learning curve has involved adapting
his style to a new generation of footballers.
Many now respond better to the carrot, as
opposed to the stick which inspired the pros
he lined up alongside during the early days
of his own career.
At Monaco, some said he was too abrasive.
“Maybe Henry didn’t kill the role of the player
inside of him,” suggested Russian midfielder
Aleksandr Golovin. “Whenever things weren’t
working out during training, he’d get nervous
and yell a lot. Maybe that was unnecessary.
He’d run out onto the field, start playing and
show us some things. He’d scream, ‘Try to get
the ball away from me’. He trusted younger
players and I liked that, but there were times
when he’d feel hurt and not speak to us. You
could tell he didn’t fully transition into the
role of manager.”
Henry also made headlines for an unusual
incident after a press conference, pointedly
staring at young defender Benoit Badiashile
for not tucking a chair underneath the table
before they departed the room.
“He would make examples of people and
that annoyed a lot of people,” another player
anonymously told Goal France. “He gave this
haughty impression as if he wouldn’t consider
anyone else’s opinion.”
Henry admits that he is adjusting his style
as his career progresses. “I was educated in
a certain way, but the new generation is now
re-educating me,” he says. “What I knew for
a fact and was sure about since I was young,
it’s totally different today. You open a door
for someone these days and it’s almost like
you’re a king. I do it because I’m polite and
that’s how it should be.
“Back in the days I played, whether it was
right or wrong, if you didn’t play, then you had
your answer. You don’t play, so figure it out.
Now the coach has to come to you, explain
why you didn’t play, but that you might play
in two days. A coach is more of a philosopher
now – a bad guy when you need to be a bad
guy, but also your best friend. The psychology
of the game has evolved a lot. You can never
say to a player any more, ‘Shut up and run’.
‘Can I have an explanation?’ ‘No.’ The only
explanation you needed back in the day was,
‘You’re not playing, so figure it out.’ You can’t
do that now.
“You can’t stop players having their phones,
either. The first thing they do now when they
go back to the dressing room is check what’s
been said on social media. I’m like, ‘Don’t
you want to speak to your team-mates?’ But
it is what it is – how are you going to battle
with what’s happening in the world? Everyone
is moving on.“It’s a learning curve because I grew up
with guys at Arsenal like Tony Adams and
Martin Keown. If I didn’t understand, they
weren’t going to talk to me, they were going
to kick me, because that’s what I was going
to get at the weekend.”
Henry pauses, warming to the theme.
“I was talking to a friend recently, saying
that when I was a player, if you’d asked me
if I was tired, I was always going to say no.
‘Are you OK?’ ‘Yes, I’m OK’. ‘Do you want to
play?’ ‘Yes, I want to play.’ If they were going
to take me out of the team, I was going to
sulk because I wanted to play.
“If you ask me whether I was really tired,
yes I was tired. Was I in pain? Yes, I was in
pain. But you couldn’t say it – it was taboo. It
was a ‘shut up and play’ era, where you said,
‘I’m not in pain’. ‘Are you sure Thierry, you’re
limping?’ ‘Yes I know, that’s the way I walk’.
You don’t want to say you’re in pain or you’re
tired, because if a guy goes in front of you,
you think, ‘I might not play again’. Now as
a manager, I find myself saying, ‘Hey, you’ve
played three games in a row, so maybe you
need to rest’. The game has changed.”
During his time at Monaco, he also courted
controversy for an incident in the heavy loss
against Strasbourg. Frustration got the better“A COACH IS MORE OF A PHILOSOPHER nOW: A BAD GUY
WHEn nEEDED, BUT ALSO YOUR BEST FRIEnD. YOU CAn
nEVER SAY TO A PLAYER AnY MORE, ‘SHUT UP AnD RUn’”
Above “Lads,
I’m mic’d up- you’d better
start running,
or I’ll belt out
Lionel Richie”
148 The Managers FourFourTwo.com
THIERRY
HEn RY