Thierry Henry Needs More Experience – Stewart Robson

Stewart Robson does not think Thierry Henry is the right man to replace Arsene Wenger, but would love to see the club hire Chelsea manager Antonio Conte.

According to Robson, who played for Arsenal between 1981-87, Henry simply is not ready for the task yet.

“I don’t think Thierry Henry has got the experience,” Robson said. “When I listen to him on TV, I don’t think he reads the game particularly well. He’s getting better on his punditry, but I don’t think he’s the right man for the job at the moment.

“He needs more experience. He needs to go and coach at a lower level. Yes I know he’s coaching the forwards for the Belgium team, but that’s a totally different role to being a head coach. As head coach you’ve got to come up with a game plan, you’ve got to manage the players. You’ve got to do all the jobs that you need to do to be a top-class manager, and I don’t think he has the experience or the know-how to do that at the moment.”

“Zidane was taking over a team with some of the best players in the world. He didn’t need to change [tactics] or a game plan,” Robson said. “What he’s done is manage very experienced players, and he did it well for two years.

“Now we’re seeing, when they’re struggling, he can’t change it. He hasn’t got a game plan to make them perform better. And that would be the problem with Thierry Henry going to Arsenal. Arsenal need a total revamp of the coaching system.”

“Conte is a brilliant manager,” Robson said. “When he goes into a football club, and if he went into Arsenal, he’d make sure the players did what he wanted them to do. … They would know exactly what their roles in the side are. And that doesn’t happen at Arsenal at the moment. He’d be a great fit at Arsenal.”