Henry suggests Pep is ‘not well mentally’

THIERY HENRY has claimed that Pep Guardiola is “not mentally well” amid his split from wife Cristina Serra and Manchester City’s challenging season.

City suffered a 5-1 shellacking at the hands of Arsenal on Sunday, piling more misery on a season which leaves them fifth and 15 points off league leaders Liverpool.

For Guardiola, it has been a stressful and difficult few months on and off the pitch.

In January, reports claimed that he had split from his wife Cristina after 30 years together as she had seen his decision to stay with City until 2027 as the final straw. That bombshell followed a worrying episode in November when Guardiola emerged with scratches on his face after City’s 3-3 Champions League draw with Feyenoord.

“I cut myself with my fingernail (during the game),’ he said. ‘I want to hurt myself.’

Arsenal legend Henry went through a divorce shortly after joining Barcelona in 2007 and sympathises with Guardiola.

“Do I feel sorry about what’s happening to Man City and Pep? Yeah I do, in one thing,’ Henry told Sky Sports.

“It’s not easy to deal with what Pep has to deal with outside of football. I went through that when I went to Barcelona. It’s not easy to deal with stuff like that, when you’re not well mentally. “You can see that he’s not his usual self. I had to deal with it when I went to Barcelona, I can tell you it’s not easy. No one would like to deal with that while you have to perform all the time. So I think we can understand.

“Now if you go back on the field, it’s not good enough. I don’t think that they can cope whenever a team can deal with playing them all the way to ninety minutes and challenge them and look them in their eyes all the way.’’

Guardiola, 53, and Serra married in an intimate ceremony on the outskirts of Barcelona in 2014 but have now decided to part ways.

The couple, who met in 1994, had been living apart for more than five years after Serra moved back to Barcelona with one of their three daughters, Valentina, 17, while Guardiola remained in Manchester. — dailymail.co.uk.