Thierry Henry: The pros and cons of bringing him in at Aston Villa

Here, Joe Edwards takes a look at the pros and cons of a potential move for the France and Arsenal legend.

Massive exposure

Bringing in perhaps the greatest footballer the Premier League has ever seen obviously has its benefits.

Henry is an Arsenal legend and general fans of the sport would suddenly step up and have more interest in Villa.

One of the new investors, Edens, is from New York and Henry wrapped up his career in the MLS at New York Red Bulls so him coming on board would most likely boost support from across the pond.

It is the season ticket holders who are the fabric of any club, but Sawiris and Edens would be making a concerted effort to increase their worldwide appeal by appointing Henry.

Attracting players

If you were a player, would you rather play for; Henry or Bruce?

You would like to think having the Frenchman in charge is a selling point.

He has played at the top and coached at a high level too – working with Roberto Martinez and helping Belgium to third at this summer’s World Cup.

No managerial experience

This is what gets alarm bells ringing.

After all, being the assistant of a national team is completely different to being the main man at a Championship side.

Henry may have shown himself to be a good coach with Belgium, but does he have what it takes to be a good manager?

Ruthlessness and being able to adapt to extreme situations are key for a manager and we just don’t know if Henry has those skills.

It hasn’t worked before

Villa must know unveiling Henry as their chief would be a huge risk – look at how the reign of Roberto Di Matteo, another who was a top-class player, worked out.

They are not the only ones who have appointed someone who was a fantastic player but an awful manager in the past few years either.

Gianfranco Zola seemed clueless at Blues and Walter Zenga was well out of his depth at Wolves.

Bruce deserves better

Almost forgotten in all of this is that Villa got to the play-off final last term in a season badly hit by injuries to his best players.

Jonathan Kodjia was out for almost the whole of the campaign, Jack Grealish missed half and John Terry suffered a broken foot.

Bruce has been through the ringer in his time at Villa Park and almost got them to the promised land.

With seemingly more stability at the top, Bruce will think he deserves another season.