With new Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith officially being unveiled to the media at 4pm later this afternoon, the club have within the last hour confirmed the arrival of trusted right-hand man, Richard O’Kelly.
O’Kelly heads in as assistant head coach having worked with Smith at former club Brentford and prior to that the two also worked together at the Bescott Stadium during Smith’s time at Walsall.
We can confirm that Richard O’Kelly has joined the club as Assistant Head Coach ✍️#PartOfThePride #AVFC pic.twitter.com/Ln4QqqLci7
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 15, 2018
It was always heavily rumoured that he would make the switch as well as they are a well-proven duo together and with work beginning properly this week in terms of training and starting to get his feet under the desk and slowly begin getting his message across, I think fans will be pretty pleased that O’Kelly’s arrival has been wrapped up quickly so he can begin his own adjustment and settle in.
For anyone wondering about the pecking order:
Dean Smith – head coach
Richard O’Kelly – assistant head coach
John Terry – assistant coach
With that said, given we now know that Smith and Terry have known each other for a while and partake of that sport called Golf that some people enjoy, I certainly wouldn’t imagine the distinction in titles will actually mean much as they mull and share ideas about the place.
