KEITH ANDREWS responded to Martin O’Neill branding him a “vitrolic critic” of him during his spell as Ireland manager.
O’Neill levied the accusation in response to the ex-Ireland midfielder being linked with succeeding Thomas Frank as Brentford head coach.
Speaking on TalkSport prior to Andrews’ appointment, O’Neill said: “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.
And reflecting on that criticism, the 44-year-old insisted his conscience was clear.
He said: “My conscience would be very clean in terms of where that came from.
“Ireland was the only thing I supported as a kid growing up. I’ve already touched on it.
“Very patriotic, very passionate, very proud to be sat here as an Irish Premier League manager.
“So it came from, again, going back to the way I work, I studied the team, gave my opinion, and invariably you can’t please people all of the time.
“And occasionally you do upset people, yeah, for sure.”
Andrews makes the step up to the top job at Brentford having previously served as the team’s set piece coach.
His work yielded 13 goals from set plays last season.
Since their promotion to the Premier League in 2021, the London side has finished 13th, 9th, 16th, and 10th.
However, they are in the midst of a rebuild, with Thomas Frank having gone to Tottenham Hotspur.
The German has brought assistant first-team coach Justin Cochrane, head of athletic performance Chris Haslam and first-team analyst Joe Newton with him.
Meanwhile, Bryan Mbeumo continues to be linked with a move to Manchester United, while Christian Norgaard is closing in on signing for Arsenal.
The Bees have been able to make some significant signings, however, notably Ireland goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher who joined from Liverpool.
