Ronny Deila revealed on Friday that two members of his technical staff at Al Wahda will join him at Atlanta United.
Kenny Miller will join the Five Stripes as an assistant coach. The former Scottish international began his coaching career in 2016 as a player at Rangers with its U-20 team, then was a player-manager at Livingston in 2018. After retiring in 2020, he had numerous stops as an assistant — including with the Vancouver Whitecaps on the staff of Carl Robinson — before ultimately ending up on Deila’s staff at Al Wahda.
Elliott Parish will also join Deila in Atlanta. Parish, a former Aston Villa youth player who signed a professional contract in 2009, played in England and Scotland from 2009-2023. In July, he joined Al Wahda as its goalkeeping coach.
We can also confirm that longtime goalkeeping coach Liam Curran won’t be with the club any longer.
Deila did mention that he did want to lean on some of the carryover staff already in place.
“I never come in with a lot of people, and I’m not wanting to do that (in Atlanta either),” he said. “I want to be a part of Atlanta, not be a group inside the group.”
Even with the holidays coming up, it’s good to see Deila having already tabbed what should be a couple of key members of his initial staff.
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Carl Robinson?
Makes sense as he’s tight with Kenny Miller.
Any news about Rob staying on?
Valentino? He said he was out pretty much right when the season ended.
Hmm, Guz as player-GK coach maybe?
Sounds like Parrish with be the goalkeeping coach, since that was his role at Al Wahda.