Brentford rise above snobbery to remain awkward, all-action opponents

Brentford represent a case study in what happens to the “well-run”, paragon club when their long-serving leader departs, along with key players. Can the processes that took the club so far weather such change, can a much-admired analytics-based scouting system find workable replacements? Appointing a manager – Brentford use the title of head coach – with no frontline experience in Keith Andrews further stress-tests the strength of the framework.

The signs thus far are mixed though positive on balance. As sainted as Thomas Frank is in the Brentford canon, the Dane leaving with the blessing of execs and fans to join Tottenham, progress was never linear or a fully upward curve. A club with a reported wage bill of £50m a season, among the lowest in the Premier League, have heavy tides to swim against. That last season’s 10th place came accompanied by disappointment in missing out on European football suggests how far expectations had risen.

On Sunday Manchester City visit a team kicking off in the relative safety of 13th place, though with oscillations from losing 3-1 at Fulham a fortnight ago to a deserved 3-1 home defeat of Manchester United last Saturday. With the caveat that many find United a soft touch, and one of Frank’s final matches was a 4-3 defeat of Ruben Amorim’s team, beating them still carried cachet for Andrews; the week before he had returned to Dublin for the funeral of a United-supporting uncle. No club have beaten United and City in consecutive league matches since Tottenham in January 1996.

Andrews was no stranger to Brentford. Last season, he patrolled the technical area as Frank’s set-piece specialist. Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna, Bodø/Glimt’s Kjetil Knutsen and Danny Röhl, then of Sheffield Wednesday, were linked. The likeliest internal candidate was assistant coach Justin Cochrane, but he followed Frank to Tottenham.

The summer was a time of change on and off the field. Matthew Benham, the owner whose analytics approach follows his success in the sports betting sphere, sold a minority share to former Autoglass chief executive and Labour party donor Gary Lubner and the film-maker Sir Matthew Vaughn, whose wife, Claudia Schiffer, has been attracting photographers to the directors’ box.

The continuity at the club is provided by Jon Varney, the chief executive, and Phil Giles, the sporting director. Giles, who has been at the club for a decade, gave an interview last week to the Irish publication the 42, where he admitted Brentford can never rest on laurels with the management congratulating itself for jobs well done. “There is no such thing as established,” he said. “It’s not even a football word. When are we established? Probably never. Not a club our size, I don’t think you can ever take it for granted.”

Brentford kicked off against United in 17th place, the survival position. Shelling Frank, and leading players such as the forwards Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, the midfielder and captain Christian Nørgaard plus goalkeeper Mark Flekken, looked like a team’s heart being ripped out, an asset stripping by the carrion elite. Benham, Varney and Giles had a plan; Andrews inherited talent to work with. Igor Thiago was at the club, the previous summer’s big signing lost to Frank through injury. His four goals from 10 shots have come at the highest conversion rate of any Premier League player this season.

The speedy Kevin Schade was established in the forward line; he joined Wissa and Mbeumo in scoring double figures last season. Jordan Henderson adds top-level experience in midfield where stats show Yehor Yarmolyuk, 21, as one of the leading pressers in the Premier League. The Ukrainian can pick a pass, too. Mikkel Damsgaard’s stuttering gait belies serious creativity and Michael Kayode is a marauding full-back who launches the long throws that are key part of the weaponry. Caoimhín Kelleher, who made a penalty save from United’s Bruno Fernandes, is enjoying being a No 1 goalkeeper and Dango Ouattara, Mbeumo’s replacement on the right, scored the goal against Aston Villa in August that secured Andrews’s first home win.

Under Andrews, Brentford remain all-action, flinty, awkward to play against. Though a little more guarded publicly than his predecessor, Andrews – a former radio host on Ireland’s Newstalk station who also had a longstanding role as one of Sky’s EFL analysts – plays the media game well. After his team snatched a draw from Chelsea following a Schade long throw that raised havoc, he considered the set-piece specialism, and the “carnage” it creates, that is now part of most teams’ makeup. “I felt there’s a little bit of snobbery in the game around scenarios like that, but if the big boys do it then it seems to be accepted,” Andrews said.

The head coach has sought to refresh the group by inviting two Irish sporting heroes, the rugby union player Johnny Sexton and Ryder Cup-winning captain Paul McGinley, to speak to his players. Not everyone from back home is willing on Ireland’s first Premier League manager since Chris Hughton, however. Andrews criticised the national team regime of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane during his media career. O’Neill has been scathing; Keane a little more conciliatory towards someone he gave the full treatment in 2020. “I’ve heard a lot of bullshitters over the last 10 years and Keith Andrews is up there with the best of them,” were Keane’s words. Andrews taking on the Brentford challenge is the truest test of that and the strength of his club’s structures.

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