Havard Flo sure Jorgen Strand Larsen will be a Wolves star

The Gunners were coming off a season where they had won the Premier League and FA Cup double, and this was the fourth round of the famous competition.

Goalkeeper Alex Manninger charged out of his goal and didn’t make it as Flo headed home Kevin Muscat’s crossfield ball into the top corner.

The Austrian international gloveman was the last line of an Arsenal team littered with illustrious personnel: Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, Overmars, Petit, Bergkamp, Anelka to name but seven.

And Wolves, still a full four-and-a-half years away from reaching the Premier League themselves, ran them close.

Flo’s 37th-minute effort cancelled out Marc Overmars’ 10th-minute opener before Dennis Bergkamp popped up on 69 minutes to shoot the Gunners through.

“That was a nice goal and a nice way to start for me at Wolves in what was my second game,” Flo recalled this week. “I think we did well in that game and were unlucky not to get a draw in the end.

“We were trying to get to the Premier League at that time and I remember playing against Arsenal in the cup and also Liverpool in a pre-season friendly.

“Those games gave us an idea of the quality and intensity of teams from the Premier League and it was nice to experience that challenge.

“It was just a shame and disappointing that we didn’t get there ourselves.”

Flo was the first Norwegian to represent Wolves, with Gunner Halle and Steffen Iversen numbers two and three.

The next and current Nordic incumbent, Jørgen Strand Larsen, is coming into a Wolves squad far stronger than his three Norwegian predecessors were able to be a part of.

But Flo is also aware that the demands of a centre forward are perhaps even bigger than when he was plying his trade in several different leagues across Europe.

“When I think back to my time at Wolves, I don’t think I could deliver everything that was expected of me, and although I made a good start, it was difficult,” he says.

“Even more so now, I think with strikers you have to have power, and be strong in the link-up play, and I think I could do that.

“You also have to be smart and clever in the box, and have pace, and press defenders, and I certainly didn’t have the best pace!

“I know a bit about Strand Larsen, and I hope he has some of that DNA that Wolves and football in the Premier League is looking for.

“I think he certainly has the qualities which can make him a good striker for Wolves, and it will be really nice to see how he adapts in the team.“It will be a big transfer fee when it goes through after the loan, and I hope he can also make a good start because the pressure is always on to perform in the Premier League.

“I think he has experience on the road already which will help, and I am confident he will score goals and contribute to the team.

“He will need to deliver, but I also think he will be able to take new steps at Wolves, and improve even more.”

Flo is always delighted to see Norwegian compatriots blazing a trail at the top level of football, a journey he began himself in the small village of the aptly named Flo, in the municipality of Stryn, which boasts breathtaking scenery including steep waterfalls, deep valleys and tall – often snow-filled – mountains.

For Flo though, as with many of his family, all that mattered was football. He has four cousins who also played professional football, most famously Tore Andre, but also Jostein, Jarle and Kjell Rune.

His son Fredrik currently plays in Norway, for Skeid, and his nephew Per Egil is captain of the Sogndal team in Norway where Havard is sporting director and Tore Andre is head coach.

It’s quite a footballing dynasty for the Flo family, four of whom – Tore Andre, Håvard, Jostein and Per Egil – have represented Norway at senior level.

Having started out where he is now – with Sogndal – Flo then moved to Denmark with Aarhus, who won the Danish Cup in 1996 and finished league runners-up, a big reason why he is still regarded as one of the club’s most popular ever players.

That helped secure a switch to Germany, where he remains proud to have represented one of the Bundesliga’s most historic teams in Werder Bremen, including winning the InterToto Cup in 1998.

That spell alerted Wolves, who made their move, securing his signature in the January of 1999 for what, at that point, was the substantial sum of £1million.

By this time, Flo had also become a regular international, with four of his eventual 26 senior caps coming during the 1998 World Cup in France.

And one of his seven goals for Norway arrived in a 1-1 draw with Scotland in one of the tournament’s group fixtures which, whilst obviously no one knew at the time, would have managerial significance for Wolves in the years that followed.

Because among Flo’s team-mates was Stale Solbakken, and, on the opposition, Paul Lambert, two Molineux managers in waiting.

“To score in the World Cup was incredible, as well as beating Brazil in the group stages which was another really good memory,” Flo recalls.

So too was moving to Wolves, and joining a club which, at the time, was so desperate to try and reach the Premier League.

“Coming over to Wolves and to the West Midlands was a nice experience for me and for my family,” he explains.

“I remember the manager Colin Lee helping me get settled and I ended up in Sutton Coldfield, near Temuri Ketsbaia, and there were so many good people in and around the club.”

“It was a different culture from Germany in many ways but the atmosphere in the stadium and out on the pitch was a player was really something!”

With this talk of number nines, it’s worth remembering whose shirt it was that Flo eventually took over. Stephen George Bull.

By now, Wolves’ record goalscorer and club legend was struggling with injuries and would replace Flo from the bench on several occasions, the two linking up together for only half-an-hour of a Tuesday night goalless draw at Grimsby.

Bull would eventually be forced into retirement during the following pre-season tour of Sweden, leaving Flo to become the more regular Wolves number nine, although, looking back, he wonders if that was such a wise move!

“I remember I was very proud to have followed Bully as number nine, but when I think back now, given what a legend he is, I’m not sure if it was the best thing,” he laughs.

“I trained with Bully quite a bit and had a few minutes playing alongside him but he was having so many issues with his knee that he eventually had to retire.

“I was only just arriving, but to get that shirt, straight after him, was a nice moment.”

There was another striker emerging at the time whom Flo enjoyed lining up with – a certain Robbie Keane – while his boot-boy, well, he didn’t go on to do too badly either. That was Joleon Lescott.

“It was great to play with Keaney and you could see what a talent he was going to be,” Flo recalls. “And it was still the time when there was the tradition of players from the Academy would look after one of the professionals, I’m not sure it’s done so much now.

“I got to know Joleon as my boot-boy in the early days at Wolves, and then, years later, saw him go on to become a legend, playing in defence for Manchester City and winning the Premier League, and also playing for England.

“That is another nice memory for me, and when I used to watch Manchester City play on television, I’d be telling my friends, ‘he was my boot-boy!’”

On the pitch, it was a frustrating couple of seasons for Wolves, which coincided with Flo’s spell at Molineux.

Under Lee, Wolves often played decent football, and showed signs of what might have been, but finished just outside the play-offs in seventh in successive seasons, missing out thanks to a final day defeat against promoted Bradford the one year, and suffering refereeing controversy in one of the latter fixtures against Bolton in the second.

Frustrating at times for Flo as well, featuring as it did one or two injuries including a serious knee problem – “like a punch in the face” – which ruled him out for a year.

But he still hit double figures in terms of his goal return, a respectable 10 from 43 appearances of which 13 came from the bench.

“Every year we seemed to get so close to the play-offs without quite making it,” says Flo. “I think the Championship has always been a tough league and I found it tough, especially with the big injury after which I eventually left.

“As I say though, I have good memories of my experience at Wolves, especially the people, and players like Andy Sinton who was a good friend.

“Then there was John Richards, who was the Managing Director when I arrived, and Rachael Heyhoe Flint and the manager’s secretary Dot (Wooldridge) who all really helped me settle in.

“It’s funny, because a few years after I had left Wolves, we were in La Manga in Spain on a pre-season camp and I felt a tap on my shoulder along with the words, ‘hello Havard’.

“I turned around and it was Rachael, who was there playing golf, which was a great surprise. It was lovely to see her again.”

In remembering Heyhoe-Flint and Wooldridge, and asking after others such as Richards, Bull and many of his former team-mates, it is clear that Flo’s ultimately short spell with Wolves still left a lasting and positive effect.

After departing Molineux, he returned to see out his career with Sogndal, which included playing until he was 40, before hanging up what were ultimately very prolific boots.

He proceeded to initially spend some time as assistant manager before progressing to his current role of sporting director, a position which is challenging and often hectic, but very enjoyable.

Meanwhile now, over a quarter-of-a-century on from his own arrival, there is a new Norwegian number nine for the Molineux faithful to get behind.

Will he, like Flo, open his Wolves account against Arsenal?

“That would be the perfect start,” says the now 54-year-old, who will be watching from afar.

“A good start doesn’t mean everything, but it can definitely make a difference.

“Hopefully he can bring success for himself and for this Wolves team, and also happiness to Molineux for the Norwegian fans as well!”