Throw-in specialist Thomas Gronnemark announces that he has signed a new contract at Liverpool after first working with the club in 2018… with the Dane thanking the club’s fans ‘for the support from all over the world’
- Thomas Gronnemark posted the news on Twitter and said he was ‘proud’
- The Dane was recruited from FC Midtjylland amid criticism from Andy Gray
- Gronnemark said he felt sorry for Gray and felt he was being ‘unprofessional’
- The former Denmark bobsleigh member has also praised the players’ attitude
Throw-in guru Thomas Gronnemark has announced that he will be working with Liverpool for a fourth successive season.
The Dane, who used to be part of his country’s national bobsleigh team and has worked with a number of football clubs in his homeland, broke the news on Twitter.
He posted: ‘Proud to tell that I have signed a new contract with Liverpool FC for my 4th season in the club.
Throw-in specialist Thomas Gronnemark (right) is highly regarded by Jurgen Klopp
The Dane is now in his fourth season with the club after arriving from FC Midtjylland in 2018
‘I enjoy every second together with all these fantastic people. Thanks for the support from all over the World. I really appreciate that’.
Gronnemark was recruited from trailblazing Scandinavian side FC Midtjylland in 2018 and has the world record for the longest throw-in at 51.33m.
His appointment was met with bewilderment in some quarters, with prominent pundit Andy Gray ridiculing his arrival in an interview with beIN SPORTS, saying: ‘I’m sorry, a throw-in coach?
‘Here’s the ball, pick it up with both hands, take it behind your head and throw it with both feet on the ground. I’ve got a new one for you – I want to be the first kick-off coach.’
‘If a guy looks at something new and doesn’t understand it, you have two choices: either laugh at it or try to find out more about it.
‘I just wish he’d been a bit more curious and asked why a world-class coach like Jurgen Klopp would invite him. It would have made a good feature on their show.
‘Instead it was a bit like they were talking in the pub after drinking 10 pints. I think it was unprofessional.
‘Some people hoped I’d be angry but I wasn’t. The internet answered for me with the reaction he got.’
‘I can laugh at the fact I’m a throw-in coach. It’s a funny job, I know that.’
Gronnemark has praised the attitude of the players at Melwood when teaching them new ideas
Gronnemark also spoke to The Beautiful Game Podcast last year about how he felt coaching the players at Melwood, the Reds’ training ground.
‘My feeling of being at Melwood is that people are not working as “I”, they are working as “we” – that’s just fantastic,’ he said.
”It’s like anything else in life, it’s having this balance. Sometimes if you’re too serious or too focused on the goal, it’s like it’s too competitive.
‘On the other hand if you’re laughing too much and not taking things serious, you’re not learning enough. I feel that balance is really good at Melwood.
‘On the one hand it’s the best feeling, fun, cool and on the other hand it’s a really world class environment where we are just trying to pull out that percentage every day to make us even better.
‘To get that balance between these two sides it’s really a challenge, but I think that when I’m at Melwood I feel the balance is almost perfect.’
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