Brentford have announced Keith Andrews as their new manager.
Andrews will step up from set-piece coach to replace Thomas Frank.
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talkSPORT understands fellow former Republic of Ireland international Damien Duff is one option to join his backroom staff after quitting as Shelbourne boss.
Andrews has never been a head coach at any level, and has only been set piece coach since last summer.
But Brentford director of football Phil Giles believes Andrews ‘is a very good fit’ for the club.
“He gets on with everyone, he’s very open and he’s a learner,” Giles said.
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“Keith is clear in what he wants, he’s detailed, and the players and staff like and respect him.
“He understands the players in the building and the way we’ve played and trained under Thomas Frank.
“Keith will bring his own evolution but isn’t starting from scratch, so hopefully we can make some quick progress.
“He’s a very good coach and has clear ideas about how he wants the team to improve. We were looking for somebody not just to maintain what we’ve been doing but actually try and get better.”
The 35-time Ireland international is best known for his Premier League stint in Blackburn’s midfield, while he’s more recently worked as a pundit for Sky Sports.
The Bees had been without a manager since June 12 when Frank left for Tottenham in a club record £10million deal.
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The west London side have long had a philosophy of promoting within, as they did when Frank stepped up from his role as Dean Smith’s assistant seven years ago.
Mark Warburton made a similar ascent to the hotseat, but both were assistants rather than set piece coaches.
Frank’s assistant, Justin Cochrane, was also linked with replacing him at the Community Stadium, but instead also went to Spurs.
Their philosophy has paid off in the past, particularly with Frank who took them to the Premier League for the first time ever in 2021.
The following four seasons saw two top ten finishes with relegation back to the Championship rarely a concern despite one of the league’s smaller budgets.
An external appointment was a possibility, with talkSPORT reporting that Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna was being eyed.
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Yet Andrews instead impressed enough in his role as set piece coach.
The Bees scored 13 goals from dead balls last season, the fifth most in the league and conceded just two, the lowest figure in the division.
Giving his verdict on the story, former Celtic, Aston Villa and Ireland manager Martin O’Neill went after Andrews with a dose of spite.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “Keith would be an interesting one because he hasn’t managed before.
“I hope he gets the job, because as a pundit a few years ago, he was a particularly vitriolic critic of mine for the Republic of Ireland team.
“He derided the use of set pieces that we were using to try and win some football games and the irony of irony is that he becomes the set-piece coach at Brentford.
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“So I hope he gets the job to realise that management is a wee bit more difficult when you’re on the field of play than it is actually sitting in the pundit’s room.
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“If he has been able to get them off to fast starts [from kick-off], that is terrific and that’s in his favour.
“But management is a wee bit more difficult than Keith thinks it is.”
