Former mentor Pedersen details Thorup's route to City

It was the experienced Dane who crafted Thorup's role into first-team management from academy football, and even had the now Canaries chief as his assistant to help him learn his craft before handing him the reigns. 

Pedersen spotted Thorup's potential as a head coach while watching him at the Danish club's academy. He was in the room when the decision was made to create a pathway for him to eventually become his successor. 

During a 30-minute conversation with the Pink Un via a video link from Denmark, Pedersen explained what he saw that convinced him that Thorup could develop into a talented head coach all those years ago. 

“First of all, the way he coaches on the pitch. He's very strong on the pitch with his instructions, and he is clear about what he wants from the players.

"If you understand, he is much more a coach than a manager. This clarity is what players need. They need clarity from the coach. Otherwise, they get lost in the game, and Johannes is very strong.

"There are clear demands from him. That was worth exploring more. That's why we moved him from under-17 head coach up to assistant coach," Pedersen said.

"In the summer of 2021, we decided internally that, when the time was right, I would step up as group technical director, and we moved Johannes up to see if we had the internal candidate that, if he could be developed further, [we could hire] or that we wanted to hire an external coach.

"After six months as an assistant coach, we could see Johannes had the quality and the way he developed with more and more responsibility around the first team; we could see that he could be a potential head coach.

"Less than one year later, he was offered the job in January 2023.”

That ability to convey his footballing philosophy, strong natural coaching ability and understanding of how to structure a team is matched by his well-rounded as a human being. 

Thorup was confirmed as David Wagner's successor back in May. (Image: Martyn Haworth/Focus Images Ltd)

Those human qualities make Thorup a graduate of an impressive system led by Right to Dream, the ownership group that owns Nordsjaelland and Pedersen is the technical director of now, who have provided the 35-year-old with unique experiences. 

"When you work in Right to Dream, then you get a lot of international experience, and you also get into situations that can be uncomfortable.

"For example, travelling in Africa and playing international games after a lot of traveling. These situations are not always structured, and you have to be ready to change plans," the 61-year-old said. 

"You need to have an open mindset because there are many things that can go wrong – just like in football – and you learn how to deal with these things. That’s very important for our employees to visit other parts of the world and dealing with people from completely different cultures. That’s how you learn. It’s when you get out of your comfort zone.

"Johannes is strong because he is very reflective as a person. Maybe he is not [so good at] taking things on board at once. Maybe he needs to think a little more and reflect a little more and not only say ‘yes I agree’, but after a couple of days he is smart enough and has digested the new things and is adapting this to his own ideas."

Thorup arrives at City having only had fewer than 18 months as a front-line first-team head coach, and is still learning his craft as he arrives at Carrow Road. 

Sporting director Ben Knapper believes Norwich have pipped a host of clubs to Thorup's potential and secured a coach who is on an upwards trajectory after his impressive spell in Denmark. 

Pedersen makes little secret of the fact that City's boss still has plenty to learn - but was impressed by how he took adversity and challenge in his stride after his appointment to the first team at Farum Park. 

"It was a little bit of a difficult situation that he was thrown into, even though he had one and a half year as an assistant coach," Pedersen said. 

"Then, when he started as head coach, the club invested in some good players so he was put under a little bit more pressure than normal because we expected better results whilst still playing our own style of play.

"At that time, we were number one in the Superliga in the middle of the season and eight points clear of FC Copenhagen and three points clear of Viborg. Already, there was more pressure than normal.

"I think he handled it quite well. You cannot expect, as a first-time young head coach, that you do it perfectly from day one.

Pedersen had Thorup (behind) as his assistant at Nordsjaelland as part of the City boss' development. (Image: Noah Thilemann/FC Nordsjælland)

"He coped well the first six months, ended up number two in Denmark and qualified together with the first of the staff, for Europe."

That qualification into the Conference League spread news of Thorup's work from just inside Nordsjaelland to further into Denmark and then worldwide after impressive victories against supposedly superior opposition. 

Impressive performances and results attracted more attention, especially in the style that the now City boss was developing. For Pedersen, it was also clear to see his own personal development and personality in the role grow during this period. 

"It was in the next season that it was huge to beat Steaua Bucharest and Partizan Belgrade to move into the Conference League group stage. We didn’t expect that, and he performed well in this period, looking at it internationally.

"I don’t know if it motivated him more than the Superliga, but it meant he and the staff performed in the Conference League, even though we didn’t promote with 10 points. I think it is the first time that a team with 10 points did not go to the round of 16. The big disappointment was that we lost the final game in Bulgaria.

Thorup impressed during his time as head coach at Nordsjaelland. (Image: Rudi Dalsgaard)

"In the Superliga, it was so-so. It was not that good but we are not used to playing both in Europe and the Superliga," Pedersen said. 

"But in the last six months, the team really developed and Johannes developed even more with the team that you could see him getting more and more comfortable as a head coach.

"It was obvious that he was even more relaxed and could also make better decisions, especially during games."

- Part two of our chat with Johannes Hoff Thorup's former mentor Flemming Pedersen will be out next week