Johannes Hoff Thorup's arrival at Norwich City is further evidence of Denmark's flourishing football education programme.

Thorup was named as David Wagner's successor last week and has followed the likes of Thomas Frank at Brentford, Johan Lange as technical director and Frederik Leth as head of player insights at Tottenham as the latest Dane to land a top role in English football. 

There are also three Danish coaches currently managing in the Bundesliga and plenty more in the Superliga, like Copenhagen's Jacob Neestrup, are expected to take the leap to other foreign nations. 

Denmark is seemingly a hotbed of football education for coaches and executives at present, and one man who understands why is Dave Reddington - a former youth coach in England who has been working at AGF for the past few seasons. 

He will have pitted his wits against Thorup's Nordsjaelland team and has formed a key role as deputy to former City striker David Nielsen initially and then one-time Canaries-linked boss Uwe Rosler. 

Reddington, formerly of Crystal Palace under Roy Hodgson, has spent the last three years there as a member of AGF's coaching team. 

After three seasons in the Superliga, Reddington is now returning to the UK - but has explained why Denmark is so in vogue for clubs recruiting coaches and top officials at present - just as Norwich have done with Thorup. 

“It’s a young league and very competitive,” Reddington told Training Ground Guru. “The clubs have to sell, so they bring young players through into the first team, develop them and move them on.

The Pink Un: Former Crystal Palace coach Dave Reddington is on a return flight to England after a few years in Denmark.Former Crystal Palace coach Dave Reddington is on a return flight to England after a few years in Denmark. (Image: PA Images)

“At AGF, we sold Albert Grønbæk to Bodo-Glimt, Yann Bisseck to Inter Milan and Adam Daghim to Salzburg. The clubs are very strategic in what they do and there’s a very strong work ethic.

“I don’t think there are too many players with that individual ability to go past people here, which makes the game much more tactical, and more and more clubs are looking for this in their coaches.

“There are only 12 teams in the league, so it’s very intense. It’s competitive and there are a lot of rivalries. Aalborg and Odense are two historic clubs, but they were relegated because they had one bad window or made a few bad decisions.”