Former MK Dons player and coach Keith Andrews is to be a Premier League manager after he became the new Head Coach of Brentford.

The 44-year-old Irishman has been confirmed as Brentford’s replacement for previous Head Coach Thomas Frank, who left the West London club to become the new boss at Spurs earlier this month.

Andrews has earned a promotion into the lead role at the GTech Community Stadium, having spent the 2024/25 season as a set-piece coach with the Bees. The role will be his first as a manager.

The Premier League side have not confirmed Andrews’ contract length.

In his playing days, Andrews spent two spells with MK Dons. He joined the club from Hull City in 2006, where he was immediately installed as club captain. He would make 87 appearances in all competitions, scoring 22 goals and captaining the Dons in their League 2 and EFL Trophy double-winning 2007/08 season.

Andrews left for a move to the Premier League with Blackburn in 2008, but returned to MK Dons in 2015 on loan from Bolton, making 5 appearances in his second spell at Stadium MK as part a promotion winning side.

After his second spell in Milton Keynes, Andrews retired from playing and spent the 2015/16 season as a coach at MK Dons, in what was his first coaching role in football.

He then spent time in the coaching staff with the Republic of Ireland national team at both under-21 and senior level, as well as a stint with Sheffield United before moving to Brentford last summer.

In his first interview as Brentford Head Coach published on the Bees’ official website, Andrews said he was happy to given the chance to succeed Frank in West London and was looking forward to building on Frank’s work. The Bees finished 10th in the Premier League last season.

He said, “Pretty humbled would be the overriding feeling, honoured that I’m the person that’s been chosen to take the club into the next chapter.

“I’m very appreciative of the owner, the board and the staff that have supported this decision. It’s an opportunity I feel I’m very capable of doing and ready to do.

“I don’t know where to start in terms of what’s exciting me because there’s so much: the potential of the football club, the potential of the players and the potential of the staff that underpin what has brought success to this brilliant football club.”