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How do Brentford keep appointing the right managers?Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Keith Andrews has led Brentford to seventh in the Premier League in his first season as a managerBySimon Stone
How do Brentford keep doing it?
When boss Thomas Frank left to join Tottenham Hotspur last summer, there were fears over what it would mean for the Bees.
Even more so when managerial novice Keith Andrews was appointed as his successor.
Many tipped Brentford as relegation candidates, but people should have known better.
While Frank is licking his wounds after being sacked by Spurs, Andrews has the Bees challenging for European football – seventh in the Premier League and into the FA Cup fifth round.
Andrews is the recent man to be appointed Brentford boss with little or no top-flight managerial experience and go on to surpass expectations, making light of his predecessor’s departure.
In the past 15 years under owner Matt Benham, Brentford have appointed just six permanent managers – and arguably just one of those proved a mistake.
So, with various rivals constantly in managerial chaos, how do a club with one of the lowest budgets in the top flight – who have to deal with regularly losing their star players – keep getting it right with unproven appointments?
Do they simply have the Midas touch in picking the right person, or is the manager just a smaller cog in a big machine?
Brentford are renowned for their innovative, data-led approach under Benham, often defying conventional wisdom in search of an edge when it comes to recruitment and strategy,
They may have surprised some by naming the inexperienced Andrews as their boss, but it did not come as a shock for their own fans.
BBC Sport fan writer and Brentford supporter Ian Westbrook mentioned at the time of his appointment: “While many were sceptical about the appointment of their set-piece coach Andrews as manager, having had no experience of being a boss previously, lots of Brentford fans were prepared to give the new man a chance.
“Matthew Benham and director of football Phil Giles have only made one bad managerial appointment in 10 years and they rectified that rapidly.
“Longer-term Brentford fans say everyone should ‘trust the process’ – and I do – but a good start is vital to ease any pressure from some fans and to give the squad a morale boost after a turbulent summer.”
A quick glance at the Benham era and you can see why fans should trust the process.
In 2011, the League One Bees gave Uwe Rosler his first taste of managing in English football. He got the club close to promotion before leaving for Wigan in 2013, where he was sacked after a year in charge.
Rosler was replaced as Brentford boss by the club’s sporting director Mark Warburton – in his first managerial job. He led the Bees up to the Championship in his first year in charge before they lost in the play-off semi-finals in 2014-15.
Warburton left the club at the end of that campaign and became Rangers boss. He led the Old Firm side back into Scotland’s top flight, but has not had much success as a manager since leaving the Glasgow giants in 2017.
Warburton’s replacement at Brentford proved to be Benham’s only blemish thus far. But the club acted quickly – sacking Marinus Dijkhuizen after just nine games of the 2015-16 season.
Following a brief interim spell from future England Under-21s boss Lee Carsley, Dean Smith joined from League One Walsall to take the permanent reins at Brentford.
Smith stabilised Brentford as a Championship club during his three-year stint before moving on to lead Aston Villa in the Premier League.
His assistant Frank stepped up to the top job at the Bees, securing promotion to the Premier League at the end of the 2020-21 season and helping establishing the club in the top flight during his seven years in charge.
Frank’s exit last summer paved the way for another internal appointment – and current boss Andrews has done a superb job thus far.
Former Brighton striker Glenn Murray told Football Focus: “If the Premier League stopped right now, Keith Andrews would be manager of the season.”
So why do Benham and Brentford keep getting things so right?
The decision to appoint Andrews sums things up neatly.
Externally it was viewed as a high-risk move, but internally it was seen as one of the lower-risk options.
Club sources are wary of shouting about their success from the rooftops because nothing is certain in football, but their reasoning around Andrews taking over was rock solid.
Firstly, he was already at the club. Senior staff knew him, they knew his strengths and weaknesses and what they were likely to get. He knew them. He understood the club model and had already bought into it.
What Brentford do not want is a new manager who comes into the club and starts telling everyone what they view as the best way to run it.
Brentford have a well-established model that has brought them success. There was no desire or intention to deviate from it. Having Andrews at the helm brought the continuity that guarded against a dramatic collapse.
That is not to say Andrews’ presence is an irrelevance. On the contrary, the belief is he has done an excellent job and if he had not, the evidence would be clear.
However, he has slotted into a well-established machine.
Contrast that with Frank at Tottenham, who followed on from Ange Postecoglou, Antonio Conte, Nuno Espirito Santo and Jose Mourinho.
It is fair to ask whether all those individuals failed through faults of their own – or did they struggle because of the lack of a wider strategy, given all five men approach the game in a different way?
The expectations at Brentford – who host Brighton on Sunday – are also totally different compared to Tottenham.
Frank took over a side that had just won a major European competition and had ambitions to return to the level that produced 11 top-five finishes in the past 16 seasons.
Brentford, by contract, are already operating at a level higher than they have been for virtually their entire existence.
No club should be swayed by external noise, but it is easier when the messages coming back are supportive rather than hostile.
Even after a tricky start to the season, when Brentford collected just four points from their opening five games and were 17th, fans were minded to trust those running the club rather than turn their ire on them.
Common sense, perhaps.
But if it was that easy, everyone would do it. Wouldn’t they?
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