Thierry Henry is a candidate to become the new Bournemouth manager; the club have spent the last two weeks in discussions to find a replacement for former boss Jason Tindall; Henry currently managing in MLS with CF Montreal
Friday 19 February 2021 19:31, UK
Bournemouth have asked MLS side Montreal for permission to speak to Thierry Henry about taking over as manager.
Henry is one of the leading candidates to take over at the Championship club after Jason Tindall was sacked earlier this month.
His former Arsenal team-mate Patrick Vieira, former Schalke and Huddersfield manager David Wagner and current caretaker boss Jonathan Woodgate are also on the shortlist.
The Cherries board have been locked in talks about replacing Tindall and are pursuing Henry for the role.
Henry took his current job in November 2019 when the club were known as Montreal Impact and, in his first season, the team made the play-offs for the first time since 2016, eventually eliminated by New England Revolution in the first round.
He is currently preparing the team for the 2021 MLS season, which begins in April, having brought in 11 new players including Canada international Zorhan Bassong from Cercle Brugge. However, they have lost ex-Barcelona and Stoke striker Bojan Krkic.
Henry began his coaching career with Arsenal's youth teams before becoming Roberto Martinez's assistant with the Belgium national team. He left Belgium to take his first head coach role at his former club Monaco in 2018.
Henry had ended his spell as a pundit on Sky Sports to take up the full-time job but it did not work out, as he was sacked after three months in charge, having won only two league matches.
After his sacking, French football expert Jonathan Johnson told Sky Sports that a lack of respect and unhappiness among players contributed to his downfall.
"He doesn't seem to show much respect to the players and to opponents either. So a lot of the players in the squad felt his behaviour didn't befit that of a top club's coach. They went to the Monaco hierarchy and the leaders of Monaco had to make a decision at that moment."
After Montreal lost to New England in heart-breaking fashion with a last-minute Gustavo Bou goal in a 2-1 defeat last October, Henry said: "This is by a distance the hardest thing I've had to deal with.
"A lot of people talking throughout the whole year and they don't have one single clue what's happening behind closed doors. People like to judge and talk."
Henry's teams like to dominate possession and recreate football patterns from his days playing under Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola. And he's a manager not afraid to give an inspirational team-talk, as captured in the behind the scenes video above, which was filmed ahead of Montreal Impact's match with DC United.
