For the next few weeks, while he recovers fully from his health problems, Vincent Kompany will be unable to lead Bayern Munich. In his absence, assistant coach Aaron Danks has taken charge of training and matches. The 43-year-old from Birmingham worked with the Belgian at Anderlecht before joining the coaching staffs of Dean Smith and Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa, and later that of Michael Carrick at Middlesbrough. On the face of it, Danks’s career looks fairly conventional, a steady progression through the coaching ranks. The story behind it is rather more unusual. He has never been a professional footballer; coaching has been his profession from the outset. At 15, he had already left school and started working in grassroots sport, travelling around schools and summer camps in Birmingham to run sessions for children younger than himself.
Danks went on to work at Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion before joining the FA, where Dean Ashworth, the architect of the England DNA project, appointed him as a possession coach across the national youth teams. He began to look beyond football, drawing on other sports to develop his understanding of coaching. NBA basketball was one source of inspiration. While working for the FA, he spent an entire day observing the Golden State Warriors in training. The experience offered a different perspective on how an elite athlete such as Steph Curry could be coached «beyond technique and tactics», as Danks himself put it.
In 2021, having played a central role in England’s victory at the 2017 Under-20 World Cup, Danks completed what amounted to an internal coaching education at the FA and moved into club football for the first time, joining Kompany at Anderlecht. The experience he had accumulated across the game had shaped an approach built around personal relationships and keeping players engaged. In an interview with the Premier League, he described the questions that occupy him on the training ground. «One of my biggest concerns is how I get players to work. I often ask myself: how can I slow a session down to give them a better chance of succeeding? Can I simplify an exercise so they understand it? How can I then raise the tempo again? How do I make sure everyone comes with me through these particular moments? Getting to know the players is fundamental, as is interacting with them constantly. At the same time, more experienced players will try to push your boundaries and challenge you in different ways, and of course the speed and physicality will change too. As a coach, it’s your responsibility to understand what they need».
Kompany has described Danks as «one of the most talented and brilliant British coaches», and brought him into his staff at Bayern. Danks had already made an impression at Aston Villa, where he took over as caretaker manager between Smith’s dismissal and Gerrard’s appointment. Leon Bailey, who later had a spell at Roma and now plays for Olympiacos, recalled that «his impact was really impressive: within a few hours, he had taken responsibility for leading the team, and he was extremely clear in telling us what he wanted to see on the pitch».
At Bayern, Danks has also been entrusted with a rather different responsibility: looking after the club’s mascot, the famous porcelain cockatoo that accompanies the players and coaching staff when there is a title to celebrate. At Bayern, that happens rather often. Danks will now stand in for Kompany while the Belgian rests and recovers, having already done so last season when his manager was suspended for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against PSG. The circumstances are different this time, but Danks knows the job. His route to the Bayern dugout has taken him from grassroots football to the England youth teams and on through several club coaching staffs. Now he has the chance to take charge again.