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NO LOVE LOST . . . Thierry Henry (left) has quit his job as an Arsenal coach after a fight with Arsene Wenger

LONDON. — Spending a prolonged amount of time in a foreign country is always an eye-opening experience and something that surprised this particular correspondent during three weeks in France at Euro 2016 was just how much Arsene Wenger was on television.

Wenger has a lucrative contract with beIN Sports and is often used as a co-commentator or provides match analysis at international games, particularly when France are playing.

But Wenger’s role is not restricted to simply giving his view at games. Flick through the channels of an evening and the Frenchman is just as likely to be on a more light-hearted panel show looking at the day’s games, the big decisions and previewing what is to come.

By all accounts he is good at it too. For a man who often complains about the amount of “medias” that provide 24/7 comment on his Arsenal team, Wenger is surprisingly at ease giving his opinion on others and is relaxed enough in the studio to laugh along with the more light-hearted analysis.

This is why Wenger’s reasoning for not allowing Thierry Henry to coach Arsenal’s Under-18s for free as part of his Uefa Pro Licence, while also fulfilling his Sky television commitments, has an element of hypocrisy to it and does not ring completely true.

Wenger became upset last season when Henry remarked on Sky that he had never known Arsenal fans to be so unhappy. It was not a criticism of his old manager or his former club, but simply an observation that anybody attending the Emirates during the protests would have made. If anything, Henry could only be accused of being too forgiving of Wenger and Arsenal in his punditry. He has never gone for the throat in the way Graeme Souness or Jamie Redknapp have and will try to balance the negatives with the positives he can find.

Sources around the Gunners suspect, rather than genuinely believing that Henry could not split his time between a shared coaching role with the Under-18s and Sky, that Wenger does not want the 38-year-old around the training ground during the final year of his contract.

The theory goes that Wenger does not want anybody around him who may be perceived to challenge his authority if things are going wrong. — The Telegraph.