Brentford sure Keith Andrews is right man (despite what Roy Keane thinks)

Times

10 hours ago

Has there been a bolder appointment in the Premier League era?
Every new head coach comes with an element of risk, of course. Yet even for Brentford, English football's great ­innovators over the past decade, the ­decision to replace Thomas Frank with their set-piece coach, Keith Andrews, is a move that, on the face of it, appears remarkably brave.
After all, in the decade since the ­44-year-old called time on his playing career, Andrews's coaching CV amounts to spells on the coaching staff of MK Dons, Ireland's under-21s and senior team, and half a season as Sheffield United's set-piece coach before joining Brentford in the same role last summer.
Yet Andrews, who was presented to the media at ­Brentford's Gtech ­Community ­Stadium on Monday, says he has been preparing for this role for some time.
'Two or three years ago I knew I was ready to be a head coach,' Andrews said. 'Would I have foreseen it being this role at this level? Probably not, realistically. But the path I've taken has been very deliberate to get to this stage.'
Brentford's preference for hiring ­internally is equally deliberate, of course, and doing so is nothing new. Mark Warburton had been both coach and sporting director at Brentford before he was handed his first managerial role in 2013-14, a season that ended with promotion to the Championship. Frank had been Dean Smith's assistant for almost two years when he was ­promoted to head coach in October 2018, and seven years on Brentford are an established Premier League club.
'Thomas has a phrase, which is, 'If you take no risk, you also take a risk,' which is completely right,' Phil Giles, the club's longstanding director of football, said. 'It's more risky to go and get a coach we don't know from a club where the environment might be different. This is ­actually quite a low-risk appointment, because I know how good Keith is.'
The difference on this occasion, ­perhaps, is the impending summer of yet more upheaval. As well as losing their head coach, Brentford appear likely to lose their captain, Christian Norgaard, to Arsenal. Their best player, Bryan Mbeumo, is being hotly pursued by Manchester United. Frank has taken the assistant coaches Justin Cochrane and Chris Haslam with him to Tottenham Hotspur, while another, Claus Norgaard, also left.
Yet Andrews is sanguine about the situation he is inheriting. 'The way this football club has worked, players come and players go, that's just the nature of it,' he said. 'Ultimately, I want the best possible players in the building. And we've got phenomenal players in the building that we will continue to ­improve and develop. And what will be, will be on that front.'
Former colleagues and team-mates describe Andrews as a leader. He captained Wolverhampton Wanderers aged 20 and gained Premier League experience during his time with Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion, after Paul Ince had brought the Dubliner with him to Ewood Park from MK Dons in 2008. He also represented Ireland 35 times, playing at Euro 2012 under Giovanni Trapattoni.
Shortly after hanging up his boots, Andrews joined Sky Sports' EFL coverage as a pundit and will have no issues stepping into Frank's shoes as the amiable, insightful public face of Brentford.
Andrews should be prepared for the scrutiny that awaits too. His coverage of Ireland drew the wrath of Roy Keane in 2020 and, more recently, the ­manager Keane assisted between 2013 and 2018, Martin O'Neill. 'I've heard a lot of bullshitters over the last ten years, and Keith Andrews is up there with the best of them,' Keane told the Irish Independent. Last week, during an appearance on talkSPORT, O'Neill called Andrews a 'vitriolic critic' who will soon 'realise what management is all about'.
'That's the gig,' Andrews said. 'People are well and truly entitled to their opinion. And ultimately, the type of person I am, I will give an honest opinion. I'll be me. I'll be authentic.
'I'll be who I am on a daily basis. That won't change.'