'My conscience would be very clean' - Keith Andrews responds to Martin O'Neill's 'vitriolic critic' claim

Keith Andrews could not help but smile when talking about his pride at joining the list of Irishmen to manage in the Premier League.

The former Republic of Ireland international was appointed as Brentford’s new head coach last week, replacing Thomas Frank who has joined Spurs after seven years in charge.

It is Andrews’ first head coaching job, having spent the last year working under Frank as the club’s set-piece coach.

Many were surprised at Andrews’ quick ascension into a head coach role, but Brentford had identified Andrews as someone who could one day step into the job, though it has come sooner than even he expected.

For the former Republic of Ireland coach, however, this has been a long time in the making. The 44-year-old started on his coaching path when he was 29 and still in the midst of his playing days, having identified his ambition to some day lead a team of his own.

Andrews has taken a varied path to get to this point, including becoming a well known pundit, regularly featuring on Sky Sports’ EFL coverage to provide his thoughts.

He has also not been shy on voicing his criticism in the past, most notably his assessment of Ireland’s shortcomings under Martin O’Neill, which he has still not forgotten about.

O’Neill, speaking on Talksport ahead of Andrews’ expected appointment, labelled the new Brentford boss a “vitriolic critic” of his and claimed it was ironic that he had become a set-piece coach because of what he described as criticism of O’Neill using set-pieces to win games.

“My conscience would be very clean in terms of where that came from,” Andrews said, reflecting on the criticism he dished out in his punditry days.

“Ireland was the only thing I supported as a kid growing up. I've already touched on it. Very patriotic, very passionate, very proud to be sat here as an Irish Premier League manager.

“So it came from, again, going back to the way I work, I studied the team, gave my opinion, and invariably you can't please people all of the time. And occasionally you do upset people, yeah, for sure.”

Then Republic of Ireland Manager Martin O'Neill with former Republic of Ireland International Keith Andrews at a SPAR FAI Primary School 5s launch in 2016 Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Andrews comes across as calm, cool headed and measured, and despite his inexperience as a head coach, gives the impression that he has long prepared to be in this position, handling tough questions from journalists and articulating himself expertly.

But he faces huge pressure to prove his doubters wrong. The reaction from Brentford fans to his appointment has been mixed to say the least, some understandably worried about the hiring of a first-time head coach in a summer where they also look poised to lose star men Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard.

Andrews, however, will once again rely on the determination that he says he has always had to prove his abilities.

He explained: “I'll go back to my memory being on a treadmill when I was 23 years of age. The manager wasn't picking me. It was close season and the manager wasn't picking me. And every time I was taking a stride on the treadmill, I was just picturing them. I was picturing them, I'll come back pre-season, I'll show them.

“I just have an innate desire to be the best I can be. I like achieving things. I think there's something there. So I don't need extra motivation. It's just all internal. Continue to get better. What did I do today? Okay, I'm better than I was yesterday. And that's kind of been the path that I've taken.”

Andrews might not be a stranger to being publicly criticised but the role of a Premier League boss comes with being the target of extreme levels of attention and judgement - not just from fans of his own team but football fans in general.

“I think if you want to have a career as a footballer, first and foremost, you need to have resilience,” Andrews calmly explained after being posed with that reality, however.

For Brentford, though, Andrews’ appointment is not seen as a risk. The club’s director of football, Phil Giles, instead pointed to the risks that would come with making an external appointment, someone unfamiliar with the culture and methods that have seen Brentford rise from League Two to the Premier League under owner Matthew Bentham.

“You’ve got to ignore the outside noise, you have to, because it’s all meaningless at the end of the day,” Giles said.

“I think as a club, we've tried to make decisions that maybe on the outside people say, oh, that's a brave decision, things like closing our academy or all the things we've done over the years that have been maybe different to other clubs.

“If you listen to the outside, you would just make the same decisions as anyone else. And we realised that for us to progress, it'd be a bit different to everyone else.” Andrews faces a big task to deliver on that faith shown in him, in what will arguably be Brentford’s biggest summer of change since winning promotion to the Premier League.

But the former Wolves, MK Dons and Blackburn midfielder is firmly focused on what is to come, refusing to reflect much on what he has achieved to date.

He said: “Am I proud? Are my family proud? Yeah, of course they are but I'm only at base camp. We're not done. I want to continue to keep going.”

Click here to read article