Middlesbrough swoop for Aston Villa man | OneFootball

Middlesbrough head coach Michael Carrick has added to his coaching staff with the appointment of former Aston Villa man Aaron Danks, the club have confirmed.

Carrick only arrived at the Riverside Stadium in October with ex-Boro defender Jonathan Woodgate in tow on his team, whilst inheriting the likes of Leo Percovich and Nick Allamby from previous regimes.

The likes of Mike Phelan and Rene Meulensteen were previously linked to come in and assist Carrick, but he has now turned to Danks to add to a young coaching staff on Teesside.

39-year-old Danks spent over 11 years at West Brom earlier in his career, working his way up from an academy coach to being the lead coach of the under-18’s before moving on to the FA to become a specialist coach for England’s youth teams.

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In 2021, Danks headed to Anderlecht of Belgium to join Vincent Kompany’s staff, but after just a few months he returned to England to join Villa as a first-team coach.

Following Steven Gerrard’s sacking at Villa Park in October, Danks took over for two matches as interim head coach, defeating Brentford 4-0 before losing by the same scoreline away at Newcastle United.

Unai Emery’s arrival forced Danks to take a step back though from first-team matters, and with his role at the club unclear, he has leapt to take the job offer at Boro.

Danks is clearly a talented coach to be at the clubs he has been at and also being poached for the England setup earlier in his career, and Carrick has recognised this.

His staff was looking a bit thin on the ground so the addition of a tactician in Danks will be very-much welcomed.

Even though very little was known about him at the time by the casual fan, Danks leapt into people’s thoughts when he guided Villa to a thumping success over Brentford recently, and he made sure people knew who he was after that.

Perhaps he has head coach ambitions of his own one day, and going to Boro to work under Carrick isn’t a step in the wrong direction when it comes to that at all.