Andrews' journey from set-piece expert to Brentford boss

Keith Andrews has landed his first senior managerial role 10 years after retiring as a player

Two months ago, Keith Andrews applied for the manager's job at League Two MK Dons only for former Derby County boss Paul Warne to get the role instead.

In an unexpected turn of events, the former Republic of Ireland midfielder now finds himself a Premier League manager after Brentford promoted their set-piece coach to head coach following Thomas Frank's departure to Tottenham.

Andrews is the 98th permanent (non-caretaker or interim) managerial appointment by a Premier League club since June 2015, but only the sixth to be a first-time manager.

Of the other five - Mike Phelan (Hull, 2016), Craig Shakespeare (Leicester, 2017), Scott Parker (Fulham, 2019), Mikel Arteta (Arsenal, 2019) and Gary O'Neil (Bournemouth, 2022) - only Parker and Arteta lasted longer than seven months as a permanent manager in that post.

"An appointment like this is a rarity and a risk," Matthew Upson, who played with Andrews at Brighton in 2013-14 - and under him when the Irishman began his coaching career at MK Dons in 2015 - tells BBC Sport.

"But it's exciting - it's got everyone talking about it. It's a real acceleration of Keith's career, but I know him well and I can understand why he has got this opportunity."

Dublin-born Andrews has gone from captaining Wolverhampton Wanderers at the age of 20 to landing his first senior managerial role at the age of 44.

Will he be a success like Frank, who got Brentford promoted and established them in the Premier League during his seven years in charge?

"I really like Keith but I don't think it's unfair to say that some people are very surprised," Dan McDonnell, football correspondent for the Irish Independent, says of the appointment.

Suited and booted - smart appointment by Bees?

Andrews' playing career included Premier League appearances for Wolves, Blackburn Rovers and West Bromwich Albion, while he represented his country 35 times and featured at Euro 2012 when Giovanni Trapattoni was in charge of the Republic of Ireland.

But he has also experienced life in League Two at MK Dons, one of 12 different clubs he represented in a career spanning 15 years and 412 appearances in all competitions.

"He has always been someone who is aware of the world around him," adds McDonnell, who has followed Andrews' career as a player and a coach closely.

"He was close to the owner at MK Dons, Pete Winkelman, and his standing there in his mid-20s was such that he helped recommend Paul Ince as manager in 2007.

"They had played together at Wolves. Ince then went to Blackburn and took Keith with him.

"Keith has good interpersonal skills. He always had his eye on the future and what was going on. He was networking and speaking to people.

"He recognised it was a short playing career and maybe he realised that to stay in the game you had to have your eyes open to what was going on around you."

After the Republic of Ireland qualified for Euro 2012, Andrews - who was 31 at the time - helped supply the squad with suits for the tournament after becoming involved in a clothing company.

"He had an entrepreneurial side to him," says McDonnell.

Andrews made his international debut in 2008 at the relatively late age of 28 soon after joining Blackburn, then a Premier League club, from League One MK Dons for around £1m.

In 2009, he was part of the Ireland side that cruelly missed out on a place at the World Cup to France after Thierry Henry clearly handled the ball.

"Euro 2012 was a disaster [Ireland finished bottom of their group featuring Spain, Italy and Croatia] but Keith was probably one of the few to emerge with any credit," adds McDonnell.

Andrews announced his retirement from playing in August 2015, aged 34, to become first-team coach to Karl Robinson at MK Dons.

"I absolutely love my new role and this is the perfect place for me to start learning," he said at the time.

"I'm just obsessed with football. I never switch off for a second - even when I'm watching a game at home on the sofa, I'm analysing it.

"I'm just looking to evolve as I go along and it certainly won't be through a lack of effort if I don't get to where I want to go to."

Andrews (left) made a combined 84 Premier League appearances for Wolves, Blackburn and West Brom between 2003-2012, scoring seven times

'Risky appointment - but refreshing too'

Andrews worked as assistant to Stephen Kenny for both the under-21 and senior Republic of Ireland national teams until Kenny's departure in November 2023.

Anthony Barry, now Thomas Tuchel's assistant at England, was also part of the coaching staff at the time Andrews was involved, before leaving to link up with Roberto Martinez at Belgium.

Andrews joined the backroom staff at Sheffield United in December 2023 under Chris Wilder, leaving at the end of the season when he was appointed set-piece coach at Brentford.

Though Andrews has been part of Brentford's backroom team since last summer, it has been known that he has had ambitions to begin his managerial career for some time - hence his decision to apply for the MK Dons job.

Appointing someone with no Premier League managerial experience will be viewed as a bold move by Brentford, whose first Premier League game of 2025-26 is at Nottingham Forest on 17 August.

Andrews (right) in action with Spain's Xabi Alonso, who has recently been appointed Real Madrid's new boss, at Euro 2012

Yet it continues a policy of appointing from within after Frank was promoted from his role as an assistant to replace Dean Smith in 2018. Frank had managed Brondby and Denmark youth teams before joining Brentford.

"It is a risk but it is also refreshing from Brentford," adds former England defender Upson.

"It shows they have got faith in their structure, the same as they had when they appointed Frank."

On his time working with Andrews at Brighton and MK Dons, Upson says: "He's a very personable guy, and is excellent working with the players - he has got really good people skills, and his communication was really good.

"He was a good talker on the pitch and that links into his coaching as well.

"I had a good chat with Keith only a few weeks ago when I was covering a Brentford game for 5 Live and he was very complimentary about the club and working with Frank, and talked about how he was really getting his teeth into his role.

"He doesn't have the experience of being a manager but he has the personality and the belief to do it and that must have come across, not just in an interview but from his work at the club in the past few months."

Andrews has certainly made an impact since he was appointed set-piece coach at the Gtech Community Stadium on 1 July, 2024.

Fourteen of Brentford's 66 Premier League goals in 24-25 came from set-pieces. Only Arsenal (17), Crystal Palace (17), Nottingham Forest (17), Aston Villa (16), Brighton (15) and Everton (15) scored more.

Meanwhile, Brentford finished top of the table in terms of fewest goals conceded from set-pieces (3) - second on the list is Manchester City who conceded six.

Last season, the Bees gained a reputation for exploiting a fast start from kick-offs, with Andrews' methods said to be partly responsible for the strategy.

In three successive league matches between 14-28 September - Manchester City (away), Tottenham (away) and West Ham (home) - they scored after 22 seconds, 23 seconds and 38 seconds.

In Brentford's next game - a 5-3 home win over Wolves on 5 October - Nathan Collins scored after 76 seconds.

"What I would say from my time working with him is that he kept things relatively simple in the way he viewed the game as a player," adds Upson. "He would do the simple things really well and he would like to play forwards quickly.

"With how he sees the game and how he thinks as a coach, his style definitely suits Brentford and follows on relatively seamlessly from how Thomas Frank set them up, and how they already play."

Will critics be lining up?

Andrews has been a pundit on radio and television in both the Republic of Ireland and England.

He was highly critical of Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill after losing to Wales in 2018, and told him to "stop moaning", adding: "They don't have a clue what they are doing."

Andrews can expect to face similar scrutiny himself now he is a Premier League manager, but what will success look like for Brentford under their new boss?

Since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2021, the Bees have finished 13th, 9th, 16th and 10th.

"Following on from Thomas Frank, there is probably going to be a point where the team is going to have a wobble, a dip or a drop-off in results," says Upson.

"What happens then is going to be interesting, and it comes down to what the expectations are for Keith, really.

"Even Thomas Frank has had wobbles in the past, when the team went through really bad spells. It also looks like Bryan Mbeumo is going to go, which is a blow.

"It is a really interesting appointment but having played with Keith and seen him as a coach, very much in his early days, I can see why he has got this chance.

"As well having good opinions, he is an impressive communicator in how he gets his ideas across. That is a very strong skill that he has, which will help him as a manager - if you can get the players on board with you, that is half the battle."

Matthew Upson was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan.