Thierry Henry leaves Arsenal: Club legend no longer part of Arsene Wenger’s staff after refusing to give up TV role

1/22
James Olley12 July 2016

Thierry Henry has left Arsenal’s coaching staff and is set to be replaced by another club legend Tony Adams.

The move comes after manager Arsene Wenger offered Henry a job as Under 18s assistant manager but with the caveat that he steps down from his role as a pundit with Sky television.

Henry is believed to earn in the region of £4million-a-year at Sky but Wenger was concerned at the obvious issues raised by the club’s all-time record goalscorer criticising Arsenal players in public only to then subsequently mix with them at their London Colney training base.

The 38-year-old rejected the proposal and although the split was amicable to the extent he is still welcome to attend future sessions as he continues to work on his Pro Licence coaching badge, it will no longer be on an official basis as part of the setup.

Kuame Ampadu will head the Under 18s setup next season and is now set to be supported by Adams, who will be given the role originally designated for Henry on a temporary basis.

Adams began working with the group approximately three weeks ago as he looks to step his return to the game following successful minor heart surgery last year. He has been employed as director of football at Gabala in Azerbaijan and earlier this year applied, unsuccessfully, to become manager of Brondby.

Adams has loose ends to tie up in Azerbaijan before taking up full-time employment with Arsenal and there is no permanent agreement in place as yet but he is likely to sign a contract in the coming weeks.

In Pictures | Arsene Wenger's 22 years at Arsenal

1/23

Henry’s departure has raised question marks about Wenger’s willingness to work with some of his former stars but Adams’ arrival combined with Freddie Ljungberg’s return in a coaching capacity with the Under 15s and Under 16s is an extension of his record in giving former players a chance to extend their careers.

Mikel Arteta was also offered a role with the youth teams after the midfielder decided to retire at the end of last season but opted instead to join Pep Guardiola’s new team at Manchester City.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in