MARTIN O’Neill has hit out at pundit-turned-coach Keith Andrews who was previously critical of O’Neill during his management career.
Keith Andrews looks in line to make the step up from set-piece coach to manager of Brentford following Thomas Frank’s switch to Tottenham Hotspurs.
Despite having no previous management experience, the former Ireland star looks set to land the Premier League head coach position.
Andrews coached at MK Dons, Sheffield United, the Republic of Ireland and Brentford since his punditry during the O’Neill Ireland era.
O’Neill recalls Andrews’ time as a pundit which overlapped his Ireland tenure.
Speaking to talkSPORT O’Neill said: “He has been their set-piece coach. The irony is when I was manager of the Republic of Ireland he was a particularly vitriolic critic of mine at the time.
“He was really dead against me trying to use set-pieces to try to win games.
“The irony is he becomes the set-piece coach. Really I say good luck to him. Brentford have decided, if it is the case, that he should get it.
“I hope he does get it because then he will realise what management is all about.
While Andrews was a Sky Sports pundit, he was particularly critical of O’Neill’s tactics and put the entirety of the blame on him for Ireland’s poor form following Euro 2016.
The two-time European Cup winner took a sly dig at Andrews’ inferior footballing career.
While Andrews boasts an impressive CV including Premier League football, his biggest honours arguably came in the 2007/08 season with MK Dons when he won the Football League Trophy as well as topping League Two.
The eight-time Premier League Manager of the Month gloated: “It’s not as easy to be sitting in a pundit’s chair sitting to criticise someone who in all honesty had a much better career than he had.
“He was dealing at the bottom end of it when I was winning the European Cup. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be criticising. Everyone to their own. But it’ll be a different ball game now.
It wasn’t only negativity from O’Neill for the mastermind behind Brentford’s 13 set-piece goals this season.
He praised some of Andrews’ work throughout the season which helped Brentford to a 10th place finish in the Premier League.
The 73-year-old added: “In terms of some of the decisions he has made, I think he has done very well as the set-piece coach. A lot of credit has gone to him for the fast starts Brentford have made in games.
“He is stepping into an unknown. It’s all very well when you can be the friend of the players.
“You can have the set-pieces, you can be the coach sitting there in the room. It’s a different ball game when you’re making the big decisions.”
The Bees’ 13 set-piece goals puts them in the top five in the Premier League in that category – behind just Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and level with Arsenal.
Andrews will be hoping to transfer some of his set-piece successes into a successful time in charge of Brentford, if he is to get the role.
