Aston Villa have announced the appointment of Richard O'Kelly to the coaching staff, with the 61-year-old a long time colleague of new Villa boss Dean Smith.
O'Kelly has previously worked with Smith at Walsall and Brentford since 2012 and arrives at Villa Park as assistant head coach. John Terry will work alongside the pair as an assistant coach.
We can confirm that Richard O’Kelly has joined the club as Assistant Head Coach ✍️#PartOfThePride #AVFC pic.twitter.com/Ln4QqqLci7
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) October 15, 2018
Born in West Bromwich, O'Kelly is a west midlands native and stayed local to the area for much of his own playing career spent at Walsall in the 1980s. He also turned out for Port Vale and Grimsby, before retiring and turning his hand to coaching.
O'Kelly has previously coached at Villa, spending six months with the club in the mid 1990s as he was gathering experience. He had also coached at Grimsby, West Brom, Bournemouth and Doncaster, while he was briefly manager at Hereford United in 2012.
O'Kelly's job at Hereford was his last before partnering with Smith at Walsall. He quit the club to join former partner Sean O'Driscoll at Bristol City but returned to Walsall after only four months.
He later followed Smith to Brentford and now makes the switch to Villa.
Following his appointment earlier this month after the sacking of Steve Bruce, Smith will take charge of Villa for the first time in Saturday's home Championship clash with Swansea.
Villa are currently 15th in the league table on 15 points after winning only three of their opening 12 games. Swansea are two points and four places better off in 11th.
Source: 90min
