Football Daily - Keith Andrews - The Football Interview

Episode Date: September 5, 2026

In this week’s edition of The Football Interview, Kelly Somers speaks to Brentford head coach Keith Andrews. They discuss how it was moving from Ireland to England as a 15-year-old to join Wolves' academy and how he could've potentially been a chef if he didn't make it as a footballer. He also talks about his journey into management, who has helped him and how far he can take Brentford. TIMECODES: 1’29 - What kind of a person is he? 2’20 - Could he have been a Gaelic footballer or a chef? 4’00 - Moving to Wolves aged 15 with Robbie Keane 6’40 - Why football is like snakes and ladders 7’50 - Becoming a coach and managers he’s learned from 10’30 - Getting the Brentford job & who he’s leaned on for help 13’00 - What next for Brentford?

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with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts ad-free with an Amazon music subscription. The Football Interview on the Football Daily podcast. The Football Interview is back and each week again this season, I'll be sitting down with some of the biggest names

in the game to talk about their life on and off the pitch. Our next guest on the football interview came over to England to play for Wolves and he was just 15 alongside Robbie King. He's played in all four of England's top tiers, and he's represented his national side 35 times. Now he's managing Brentford in the top light. Welcome along to the football interview, Keith Andrews.

Hi. When I list all of those achievements, of course, there's many more as well. I imagine as a young boy from the Republic of Ireland, it's not bad, is it? You'd have dreamt of that. Yeah, I speak to a lot of our young players. I'm so passionate about player development. and trying to help young players and young people that it's because I know how difficult it is to do that.

Even you're just talking about it there. I think the fact that I played in every level of English football and international football and coached every age group, I think it's allowed me to be the type of person I am and coach I am, I suppose, because I've had so many different types of experiences. My journey certainly hasn't been straightforward, far from it. Certainly in those earlier years, but I think that's what shapes you.

You mentioned there what type of person you are. What type of person are you? Probably a lot different to what people would have remembered me as a player. I was pretty aggressive as a player, I suppose. I think I had to be to be the best type of player I could be, depending on the level I was at. But I obviously matured a little bit, I think. And then went on a journey to try and be a head coach.

And that and again, that was. wasn't straightforward. I took different turns and directions that maybe people wouldn't have thought was the right direction, but I felt in my gut that they would be good decisions. So that journey was probably longer than anticipated on some levels. But I'm a lot calmer and calculated now than I was certainly as a younger man. I'm always intrigued and I always asking these interviews about how people started in their football journey. But for you, was it always going to be football or could it have been Gaelic football? I played both. Yeah. I loved both. I think they're probably my two favourite sports. Paddles running Gaelic football close.

You're a paddle player too. Very seldom, but yes. I loved Gaelic football. I probably could have played for Mark County, which was Dublin. And I needed to make a decision when you get to 12, 13, which way you're going to go. Is it a tough decision? Not really. No, not really. It was football was always my passion since I was a very young, young child. I was never about a football, planning on the street, a different area. Obviously, we're out with your mates until the sun goes in. Yeah, it was a pretty easy decision. But if it wasn't football, it probably would have been a chef. A chef? Yeah.

I thought I'd do much cooking this day and age. But, yeah, I was a passion for cooking. What kind of thing? How do you, because I think of youngsters and maybe footballers, I suppose, are often, they come to training grounds, they get food maybe. for them but obviously I'm guessing that wasn't the case for you how did you get into kind of cooking well when I went to wolves as an apprentice I wasn't getting the type of food that we're getting here now and so things have evolved pretty well on that front but um now I was always been

interested in it enjoyed it um we're a family of foodies and yeah it's probably just always been the back of my mind whether I could have dealt with the heat in the kitchen would have been another thing but um yeah interesting so I think we sat here with Nathan Collins literally in the seat He is, isn't he? It's obviously, is it from where you're from? Is it like a Republic of America? Feeders, aren't we? Irish mammies and all that.

You mentioned there coming over to Wolves. It was 15, wasn't it? Yeah. What was that like if you? How did that come about? Because that's so incredibly young, you're still a child. Yeah, it is. It's a huge decision for your family, obviously.

My mother was very against it because she wanted me to finish my education and go to university. And all the men and the family, my dad, my uncle, wanted me to pursue my dream naturally. But I kept my education gone when I went to Woolvers and made sure I got a few A-levels and bits and bobs.

And if it didn't work out, I was always going to go back to education. Yeah, was that quite important to you as well? Because I know some footballers are like, it's football or nothing and they don't have a plan B, but it feels like you're quite level-headed. And I know maybe you weren't on the pitch always, but it feels like you're quite level-headed as a person. Have you always been like that?

knew the importance of it, I think. Not that every decision was the right one for sure, certainly in those early parts of my playing career. But yeah, I think, again, the percentage of players that actually go on to have a career in the game is so small that you have to try and think of the eventuality that it might not happen. I mentioned Robbie Keene at the beginning because he's obviously another headline name that came over with you at Wolves. Was it nice to come over with him? What was your relationship like with him? Yeah, we had a huge Irish contingent at the time at Wolves. It was a bit of a hotbed for scouts at that time.

Why was that? The league was so competitive. It was called the Dublin District School Boat League, and we would play in competitions against Man United, European teams, when we played in the Middle Cup, and we would go toe-to-to-to. We just had a really good side and the competitive nature of the league at that stage.

So there was a lot of Irish players at Wolves. Five of us came over at the same. the same time unfortunately three of the players didn't make it. Robbie obviously went on to have a pretty successful career but it shows the percentages of players that unfortunately don't quite get to the level. What a move it was for you though? Was it nine years you spent in Molyneux? Nine years, lots of long moves to try and develop

for the last couple years I probably wanted to leave but you're on the contract and you're a squad player and I needed to go elsewhere for my career really but it's yeah it gave me great grounding that's the time of that what it was late 90s it was a different area you you get school by senior pros that that teach you really good lessons some of which probably weren't needed for yeah they were there were amazing times that naturally taught you a lot I heard you at one point in one interview you described football and the career that you can go on as being a bit like a game of snakes and ladders and I love that that's probably one

one of my favourite football analogies I've ever heard. What did you mean by that? I think naturally you do quite well at certain stages. I try and say this to young players now. You break into the forest team, everything's amazing, everything's easy, and then you might get an injury, or I might stop picking them, and then it's like how you react to that.

I think for me at certain stages, I didn't react to it in the best possible way. It probably wasn't as professional as I should have been. And again, it was a very different area to what we're going through now, professional footballers and I think it's the resilience and the grit that you have to show to go back up the ladder and can you do that so I went from being captain of wolves at the age of 20 to playing in league two by the age of 24 25 and I wasn't

content with that so I wanted to go again and thankfully I got back to the Premier League yeah it's an incredible journey and I like the way you've spoken about M.K. Don's in the past and the fact that you went there because you liked how much they wanted you and what was going on there. At that point was coaching in your mind that early in your career? Probably not at that stage. No, that was probably a little bit forward. That was a case of falling back in love of football.

I'd lost a little bit of trust in the game and it just wasn't fulfilling me like it did when I was that kid growing up in Dublin. I mean, now that's not always possible, but I needed to get something back to give me the adrenaline and the energy to go again in my career. and I came across really good people. The bit of a project, I suppose, the club had moved from where it was, a new stadium.

They wanted to make me captain. They wanted to go on a journey. And I just thought, why not? Let's roll the dice a little bit. And thankfully, it paid off. So when did management come into the real consideration then? Because I've heard you say before that you took notes on managers that you worked under.

Yeah, I was definitely mental notes. I can still remember certain things that happened a long time and go, I have to be honest, I learned a lot what not to do from personal experience, how I was treated, whether that's right or wrong. It stood me in good stead. I wanted to be a head coach for probably when I was 29. Started doing my coaching journey, went on that path,

started to develop, started to look at it a little bit closer. I retired probably a little bit earlier than I could have, should have, to focus on coaching and developing that side of it. And I've been very fortunate to work on this, some really impressive managers. Let's talk about those managers then because like you said there, it's an eclectic bunch probably, isn't it really?

You've worked under such a different range. I'm intrigued as to which ones you've taken bits from and the ones that had the biggest influence on you. Yeah, lots like you've said, well, Glenn Hoddle at Wolves, first one who brought tactical game plans into our minds, I suppose. And before that was just the same system versus the same system.

Glenn was huge on how professional you would be around the game. Paul Ince, who was my captain at Wolves and my manager, just instilled an unbelievable belief in me and confidence in me that I will never forget. Sam Allardyce, Roy Hodgson, two very different individuals, very different styles, took a lot from both of them and how they would manage groups, how they would formalise game players,

plans and put them into practice. And I suppose Mr Trappittsowny at international level, he was obviously a legend. And again, the trust that he showed in me as a player and how effective he got a system to work for us was really impressive. And then of course, your first head coach job comes here at Brentford, a year after coming in

as set piece coach. There was a lot said, wasn't there, when you first got the job? Probably so, yeah. Yes. What was that like for you? Did you almost relish it the fact that people were potentially saying things about you that you thought that's not that's not

what we're going to do this season and you proved them you proved them wrong I join wolves in 1996 so I've been in this game quite a long time so I've seen the soap opera before because that's what the game is the stories the bad news there's a very good analogy there's everything goes on there has to be storylines in it and there has to be talking points and I understand why I was that 12 months ago because if I was sat in Dublin having a cup of tea with my folks and my friends I would probably say something similar so I have to be honest I don't I don't read a lot I don't I don't listen to a lot I'm very fixated on what I need to do I've been like that for a

long time even as a player and so I understood it but again it didn't affect me in any way I didn't know what I was going to be like as a head coach that's a reality you think you will be a certain way and you will do things in it in a certain manner What's different? How are you different to how you thought you'd be? I'm not that different actually. I'm pretty calm in this chair. I'm probably a bit calm when I was 12 months ago. But I think what made me calm was the group of players that I would work with, having known them for 12 months, having had trust in what I'd seen from them as people that I knew I could develop some of them and help them and help us calm everything around it because there was so many changes. last year not just me coming in and Thomas and Thomas leaving it was it was a lot more than that as everyone knows but it was that that gave me the calmness and the

conference that we'd be fine once the initial choppy waters calmed down a little bit we got a few results and then we we could grow as a group do you have any mentors or anyone that you lent on at all yeah I've got a couple that advise me now and then a couple of people in the business world I've got Roy Hodgson who lives not a million miles away and Ray Lillington who played with his son for a long time and known for 20 plus years so yeah they're always there in the background and people here at the club good people that would a lot of experience that have been here a long long time just saying the right thing at the right time and certainly in those

early few months what next then because Brentford last year quite under the noise and went on to exceed a lot of what many people thought you could do there's now a little bit of expectation is there? It's the game, isn't it? Which is a good thing, isn't it? We want the noise. We've got so many good stories that we're not finished yet. It's just keeping that hunger and desire to go into the next chapter where I think we'll

be better. You're not a bad story either, Keith. Yeah. I suppose so, but it's always a team. I'm the one who's obviously in front of the camera more often than not, but it's always a collective effort. We've brought in good staff in the summer a couple of additions. We've added some really good players to an already

really good squad. So I'm very positive about where we're sat. Thank you so much for joining us today, Keith. Fascinating and the story continues. Thank you, pleasure. The EFL has a brand new home. Hello and welcome to 72 plus the home of the

EFL from Five Life Sports. Aaron Paul and Joby McEnuff tackle the biggest stories from across the championship League 1, League 2 and On minimum of one week's wage is fine And we may be even right to your wife And tell you why you've been fined if you carry on And the biggest talking points from across the football league

I always spoke well I joke and enjoyed working with him It's my show too now but yeah thanks for that Sorry I haven't really good Search 72 plus the EFL podcast on BBC sounds Get more with BBC podcasts Wherever you listen Be the first to listen to your favourite shows Like Evil Genius, Good, Bad,

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