Emmanuel Petit has revealed his belief that former Arsenal team-mate Thierry Henry has not made the transition from player to manager. The Ligue 1 club suspended Henry with immediate effect on Thursday pending a final decision on his future following a wretched run of form. The former France, Arsenal and Barcelona striker took over from the sacked Jardim on October 13, signing a deal until June 2021 after leaving his post as Belgium assistant, but has had a dismal start to his reign.
“In his short time at Monaco, we have seen too many times his frustration on the bench. Also, he has made too many weird comments after games and he lets his frustration become too much. It looks to me like he is still a player in his mind and he has to understand how to be 100 per-cent a manager. Maybe that has been his biggest problem at Monaco. Sometimes when you are a great player and then a TV pundit, you make comments that you might not make if you realise what it is like to be a manager.” Petit began.
“The world has changed so much and football has changed so much since Thierry was a player, so you cannot compare this game to what it was 10 or 20 years ago. I don’t think Thierry saw that coming when he went into Monaco. Maybe he felt his personality would be enough to turn this team around, but it hasn’t worked and as a manager, this will be a very big lesson for him. He understands that when you are a manager, you can have an impact on your team, but now he knows what it is like to feel helpless on the bench.
“When you are a player, you have the power to change what it’s happening on the pitch. Now he is not a manager 100 per-cent as he is still learning what it is like to have some of his power taken away and, as well, how to behave.
“He is still learning how to pick a team, set up his tactics, his man management skills and, on top of that as well, his body language and his communication needs to improve if he is to succeed as a coach.”