Former Liverpool centre-back Daniel Agger is these days pursuing his coaching career in charge of HB Koge – and has looked to his past for the team’s new recruit.
There’s little question the Danish defender was one of the finest the Reds have had in the modern age, with only injuries ultimately stopping him being seen as one of the best in the Premier League.
After a spell out of the game following retirement, where he attended his business interests while watching the Reds from afar, he has now started on the managerial ladder with the second-tier side in his home nation.
Ahead of the 2021/22 season, which starts on 23 July against newly relegated Horsens, Agger has looked back to his final campaign with Liverpool and a team-mate who almost helped the Reds win the Premier League – Jon Flanagan.
The former Anfield full-back has signed a two-year deal to play for HBK, having left Charleroi after a short-term deal last term.
In 2013/14, both were regulars in the back line as Liverpool, under Brendan Rodgers, played a fast-paced attacking game which saw the Reds finish second.
Agger played 23 games that season, Flanagan 25, in what has turned out to be the best year of the Scouser’s career.
At the end of that season Flanagan earned his first and only England cap and was on the standby list for England’s World Cup squad – but since then, he has been unable to settle at a club with just one real season of continuous action.
Injury ruled him out of 2014/15 and loans to Burnley and Bolton thereafter failed to reignite his form.
A move to Rangers saw one promising season in 2018/19, where he played 30 times, but he was allowed to leave in 2020 and eventually signed in Belgium for Charleroi – though he never played for them.
As such, his last appearance came in January 2020, pre-Covid shutdown of football.
Announcing his arrival, Hoge’s website noted Agger obtained references on Flanagan from Steven Gerrard – the full-back’s manager at Rangers – who was of course captain of that Reds side that almost won the league.
The move to Denmark, Flanagan will hope, will kickstart a career which has been in freefall since he almost became a title-winner with the Reds – while Agger will hope he can provide some steel in his team as they look to improve on last season’s sixth-place finish as they aim for promotion to the Superliga.
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