“I think I know my game. You come out of Arsenal. You go to Barcelona and he comes and he tells me to stay high and wide because he says he wants to free space for [Andres] Iniesta.

“I’m looking and thinking ‘what the hell is he talking about, this guy?’. You’ve never seen me play? I can come in midfield and take the ball. But he says ‘I’m happy for you but we are not doing this’. Every time you need to make a run and most of the time you won’t get it.

Henry continued: “I’m like ‘hang on, am I a decoy player now?’ From touching every single ball both halves, even when I didn’t want it? ‘Yes you need to go in and run in behind. You free the space for Iniesta’.

“I’m like ‘that won’t work, what is he talking about?’ [But] that’s exactly what happens every game. We knew what we had to do. Every single detail. He controlled everything. And you’re like ‘that won’t last’. Well, it does last and every time he manages!”“What I would say about Pep is, first and foremost, he is the best I have seen.”Henry went on to explain the ruthlessness of Guardiola.