Thierry Henry apologises after calling player’s grandmother ‘a whore’ during Monaco thrashing
Arsenal veteran’s temper got the better of him as Strasbourg star Kenny Lala wasted time with a throw-in
THIERRY HENRY has apologised for calling an opposition player’s grandmother a “whore” during Monaco’s 5-1 stuffing at the hands of Strasbourg.
The Arsenal legend’s temper got the better of him as Strasbourg defender Kenny Lala wasted time with a throw-in near the dugout just before half time.
Monaco boss Henry turned to Lala and blasted: “It’s the 43rd minute, your grandmother’s whore,” before adding to the official: “He’s got to stop now, that’s enough.”
The loss leaves the former French champs without a win in the league since early December, and two points off 18th placed Dijon having played two games more.
And on his potty-mouthed rant, Henry said: “It’s an expression of the street, unfortunately.
“I regret my elaborate comments from the bench. It was a human reaction, I’m still human. I regret it.”
Henry had a frustrating day with the officials on the sidelines as summer signing Naldo was shown a straight red for a clumsy tackle after just seven minutes.
And his angry outburst was then sparked by a VAR malfunction that saw a potential penalty shout for his Monaco side go unheard when they were 2-1 down.
Henry fumed: “There was a penalty on Rony Lopes in the 61st minute, but the VAR wasn’t working.
"The fourth official said to me ‘I’m really sorry Mister Henry, the VAR’s not working.’
“It’s 10,000 times a penalty on Lopes. So I would like to know why the VAR wasn’t working for Monaco. It started working straight afterwards. How bizarre.
“We made the effort to come back into it, with 10 players, and we earned a penalty.
“If we convert the penalty, it’s 2-2. It would have been a game changer.
“Since I arrived here I haven’t commented on VAR or the referees, but this is a bit too much.”
Next up for Monaco is a cup clash against Metz tomorrow, before a crucial trip to relegation rivals Dijon on Saturday.
Henry said: “My message hasn’t changed since I arrived here. We’re still up against it and we’re trying to get out of it.
“I’m trying to say something different to the players because we’re in a situation, there’s a truth to that. We will get out of it, we believe we will.
“It will happen for us on the pitch because we’re called AS Monaco.”
PSG continued their romp to the Ligue 1 title, extending their lead at the top to 13 points after beating bottom-placed Guingamp 9-0 thanks to hat-tricks from Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani.