Arsene Wenger might owe a lot of his Arsenal success to his management of Thierry Henry, so his views on the former striker’s punditry might come as a surprise.
Henry is a regular on Sky Sports, during which time he has been critical of the current Arsenal team, but it seems ignorance is bliss for the manager.
“Personally, I do not listen to what he says,” Wenger told Le Parisien, in an interview translated by Get French Football.
He rejected suggestions that Henry’s punditry annoyed him, saying: “That is the job of a pundit. He needs to say something.”
Henry was a member of Arsenal’s last title-winning squad in 2004, twice making the final three for the Ballon d’Or.
The French striker never took home the prize, missing out to Pavel Nedved in 2003 and Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, and Wenger thinks there is only one man deserving of the 2015 award.
“For me, [Lionel Messi] is the greatest,” Wenger said.
“Messi has been touched by grace when he has the ball at his feet.
“He has a supersonic level of training. He scores 50 goals a season and makes about 20 assists. His balance is extraordinary.”