Keith Andrews is used to doing things the hard way. The new Brentford head coach was 15 when he left his native Dublin to join the Wolves academy when they snapped up five of Ireland’s most promising young players, including a certain Robbie Keane, in 1995. But despite becoming the club’s youngest captain in more than a century Andrews dropped down the divisions with MK Dons before earning a move back to the Premier League with Blackburn and becoming an established international.
There has been a similar trajectory to his coaching career. He started under Karl Robinson in Milton Keynes after retiring in 2015, then worked as Stephen Kenny’s assistant for the Republic of Ireland. Andrews also spent time at Sheffield United before arriving at Brentford last summer as the set-piece coach. Being asked to replace Thomas Frank in his first senior role at the age of 44 bucks the growing trend of younger managers, but the former midfielder has plenty of experience to call on as he opens a new chapter at Nottingham Forest on Sundaytomorrow.
“I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs – I’ve been in this industry for 29 years,” Andrews said. “I’ve been in every division, international football, every age group. Some people come into it at a certain stage and there might have been a trendy football club playing a trendy way, and that’s good for them. But this is my path, and I’m pretty happy with the path I’ve been on.”
He added: “I [always] knew I wanted to be a head coach. I think after retirement I probably felt I wanted to do it at that stage and I probably could have taken opportunities or could have gone for more opportunities. But I quickly realised that I needed to do more. I needed to put myself in a better position by going through different experiences, which I did. It’s probably been a windy road to a point.”
Andrews has spent time closely observing Ireland’s rugby team and several other sports as part of the preparation. He also cites the influence of managers he worked under in a playing career that also took him to West Brom and Bolton, including Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Giovanni Trapattoni. Andrews recognises there cannot be many harder first assignments than taking over at Brentford in a summer when they have sold their top scorer, Bryan Mbeumo, captain, Christian Nørgaard, and goalkeeper Mark Flekken, and with Yoane Wissa wanting to join Newcastle, which has led to his omission from the Forest game.
“I don’t feel like I’ve got a point to prove,” Andrews said. “I’m very comfortable in my shoes. I understand that people will be looking at it, obviously. I think the narrative around set-piece coach to head coach is quite a nice one, isn’t it? It doesn’t tell the bigger picture, obviously. But again, I’m OK with that. I’m all right with a little bit of scepticism around me. I think you’d underestimate this club at your peril. I think they’ve proved that over numerous years.
“I truly believe that if I didn’t feel ready for this role, I wouldn’t have taken it. I really wouldn’t have taken it. I wouldn’t have just taken it to be a head coach. I would have went on that road a little bit longer and found the way to get here at the right time. So I feel I’m absolutely ready.”
Brentford, in keeping with their reputation for innovation, were the first Premier League club to employ a set-piece coach and Andrews picked up the mantle last season as they ended up with 13 set-piece goals – the joint-fifth best total. He acknowledged it would take time to stamp his own imprint on a squad after Frank’s almost seven years in charge but believes the arrivals of Caoimhín Kelleher, Jordan Henderson and the Dutch midfielder Antoni Milambo will help to plug some of the gaps created by the high-profile departures.
“It is not a copy and paste for me in terms of the way the team should be,” Andrews said. “But there are attributes within the team which we can’t lose: the hunger to compete, the ability to make the opposition feel uncomfortable in their game and what they are trying to achieve. I am big on that. And I think the big one for me is that my team will play with an edge. I think we train with that. I watched it last year and I want to continue to nudge that. I think the signings we have made help that as well.”
Andrews, the third Ireland-born manager of a Premier League side after Joe Kinnear and Roy Keane, said he had spoken to Frank “on a couple of occasions”, including on the day of Tottenham’s Super Cup game against Paris Saint-Germain this week. Such has been his obsession with Brentford’s first game of the season that, on the same evening, he found himself distracted during a meal with his wife.
“I was having fajitas and [she] was talking to me and it was straight out of my head,” he said. “I was thinking about training and what we were doing [the next day]. I think it’s a healthy obsession. Whether she does or other people do is probably up for debate. But I think you have to be serious about what you’re doing if you want to be successful.”
