Danish Delight For Reunited Backroom Team

Malmo in 2019, any number of English venues before and since, and now Copenhagen in 2024.

There are some people in football whose careers you continue to track closely and who you long to stay in regular contact with.

The man recently appointed as assistant coach to Aarhus is one such character and gives the impression of thoroughly enjoying life in Denmark’s second city – a contentedness underpinned by yesterday’s victory at previous Superliga leaders Brondby.

Kelly served Wolves on both sides of the white line and the fact a serious back injury forced him into playing retirement before his mid-20s makes his one of the longer careers in the dug-out.

At 59, he has worked for approaching 20 clubs, four of whom have engaged him twice, and his decision to head abroad again doesn’t smack of someone happy to stay at home pruning the roses.

It would have been utterly understandable had he declined this latest approach from the highly-travelled Uwe Rosler yet his wife Sarah was as keen as he was to sample another country, another culture.

“You are welcome to come out, take in a match or two and spend time here” was the gist of Kelly’s sentiment to Wolves Heroes when we contacted him three weekends ago.

Which explains why long-time Express & Star contributor John Lalley and I – and let’s not forget that Rob trained as a news reporter on the paper in the early 1990s when forced by misfortune into a new, unfamiliar world – headed over the North Sea for a long weekend with the Dansh top-flight season still in its infancy.

We had found him a brilliant host when we dropped in on him in Sweden before covid. Grounded and well-rounded, he has always been as interested in others as they are in him.

“I have been lucky to see may different places through football but I totally get why you enjoy doing some ground-hopping,” he added. “When I retire, I plan to go to that handful of English grounds, Tottenham and Bromley included, that I haven’t been to.

“Coming to Denmark is a super new adventure for us at our time of life and we’re doing it properly by driving/sailing back here with the dog and some more belongings in the first international break.

“Like when I was with Uwe at Malmo a few years ago, I have told the club I don’t need a car. Aarhus is a pleasant university city and about the same size as Wolverhampton, so I love getting about by bike – it’s around half an hour from the flat to the training ground and great exercise.”

For now, 22,175-capacity Ceres Park & Arena part-resembles a building site, with the old main stand demolished and a new structure going up.

And the signs are that the club best known in Scandinavia as AGF (Aarhus Gymnastikforening) could be in for a good campaign.

They have won two, drawn one and lost one of a tough opening month that has also pitched them into action away to new leaders Copenhagen and at home to last season’s champions Midtylland.

The game with Brondby – a Norwich-like experience with the vast majority of the 20,000-plus crowd dressed in yellow repica shirts – brought two new experiences for Kelly. 

He hadn’t previously been to a stadium at which a dramatic 3-2 Aarhus win on the last day of last season denied the hosts the league title and he also had his first taste of going to an away game in these parts by ferry.

Almost 24 hours before we followed the same route, Rosler and his players took to the sea at the start of a journey of three and a half hours, their bus going with them for when they had left Jutland behind and set foot on the neighbouring island of Zealand.

Kelly loves being under the radar and has long since shed any ambitions to manage – if indeed he ever had any even before his substantial spell in the Leicester dug-out a decade and a half ago – but is a trusted aide to the head coach.

How glad we are to have met the two of them again, plus several other very welcoming employees, both amid the joy of victory yesterday and also at the training ground before we set off for our other match-day experience at Midtylland on Friday.

Kelly reported other differences to us. The culture of managers sharing a post-match drink is alien in Denmark but Aarhus’s players are served a meal by the host club before departure – a favour they then return following their home games. 

And he can look forward to an extended festive break in England as December brings the start of a shutdown of some two and a half months in the Danish season.