Henry takes over MLS’ Montreal Impact, aiming to take second chance

The timing could not have been better really. A day after Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced he was leaving the LA Galaxy and leaving a Zlatan-sized hole in MLS’ star power, the Montreal Impact announced the appointment of Thierry Henry as manager.

First and foremost, Henry, who was officially introduced on Monday, brings name value to the league and is a marketing coup for the Canadian franchise. A superstar player in both Europe and later MLS, the Frenchman remains a massive name in world football and his arrival in Quebec has already attracted headlines from around the world. The club can expect even more global exposure once the MLS season kicks off in February.

However, what the Impact will hope most will be that Henry brings as much success on the pitch as he does limelight off it. The task ahead won’t be easy though, as Montreal finished ninth in the Eastern Conference and 18th of 24 teams overall last season.

Montreal has become something of a manager’s graveyard within the confines of MLS. The Impact have burned through six previous coaches — including recent caretaker manager Wilmer Cabrera — during its eight seasons in the league. Owner Joey Saputo has long had a reputation for meddling in the affairs of his managers, going so far as to make post-game visits to the locker room if he didn’t like what he saw on the field.

Nevertheless, Henry would not have accepted the challenge if he didn’t believe he had a chance to turn the club’s fortunes around. He will surely make some signings in the offseason as a big rebuilding job awaits him with many current players out of contract in December (Bacary Sagna, Rod Fanni, Ignacio Piatti, Samuel Piette and Orji Okwonkwo just to name a few). At least Bojan Krkic, Henry’s former Barcelona teammate, still has one year left on his deal and “Titi” will surely lean on him heavily.

But Henry will like the fact that he will be able to build his squad in the way he wants to. One of the problems he had during his time at Monaco last season was that he inherited an unbalanced squad, aging and with some key players still upset about the sacking of his predecessor, Leonardo Jardim.

And Henry’s stature in the world of soccer may be just what is needed for Saputo to back off. Unlike most foreign managers in MLS, Henry’s time with the New York Red Bulls will make him well aware of the arcane roster rules and salary limitations that the league imposes. The Frenchman knows what he’s getting into.

Whether Henry has the patience to manage players far less talented than he was in charge of in Ligue 1 remains an open question. Henry certainly can’t expect the talent level to be any higher in MLS.