Inside Brentford: How Premier League Manager-of-the-Year candidate Keith Andrews turned relegation-favourite Bees into top-four contenders

Every summer, Brentford seem to dance with death. They almost always sell off at least one of their best players and don't usually replace them, at least in a like-for-like sense. Yet since they were promoted to the Premier League in 2021, the Bees have never really faced the threat of relegation back to the Championship. It was, however, only this past summer that they were widely tipped to battle the drop.

The upheaval experienced by Brentford between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons is incomparable to any other period since they reached the top-flight. Ironically, you'd have to go back to the summer of 2020, their last as a second-tier side, to find a situation as similar.

Back then, the Bees had just missed out on promotion, both automatic on the last day of the season and then via the play-offs, and knew they would have to sell their two best players. Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma, who had 54 combined goal contributions in 2019-20, were auctioned off to Aston Villa and West Ham, respectively, while the rest of their Brentford team-mates had less than two weeks off after a heart-breaking defeat to Fulham at Wembley before they had to drag themselves back in for pre-season training.

In that instance, Brentford defied the odds again. Spearheaded by marquee signing Ivan Toney, the Bees finished third again, but this time prevailed in the play-offs, ending a run of nine appearances in them without actually achieving promotion while returning to the top division for the first time since 1947. On paper, they still had among the strongest squads in the Championship and a now-proven head coach in Thomas Frank to bounce back from heartbreak.

The situation seemed much bleaker in 2025, losing their two top scorers again in addition to the man in the dugout, yet here they are, laughing in the face of adversity once more. GOAL has the inside story on how Brentford have beaten the odds again, ensuring they head into Saturday's clash with Chelsea as the Premier League's top club in west London...

Summer exodus

It's part of Brentford's process to sell their best assets when their stock is high. No one man is bigger than the club, and that's more true at the Gtech Community Stadium than any other in the Premier League. They usually absorb one or two major exits in any given summer - Christian Eriksen in 2022, David Raya in 2023, Toney in 2024.

Brentford didn't necessarily plan to lose four key figures in the same window, though. Frank was the first domino to fall after he made clear he wanted to take up the head coach role at Tottenham when Ange Postecoglou was sacked. The Dane was the second-longest serving manager in the Premier League at the time of his £10 million ($13.5m) departure after being promoted from assistant coach in 2018, and this was seen as a real test of who exactly was the driving force at the club.

Club captain Christian Norgaard, signed in 2019 at the request of Frank after working together in the Danish youth setup and at Brondby, was also not expected to leave, but Arsenal identified the midfielder as the experienced head needed to round off their squad. Brentford didn't stand in his way and he was sold for £15m ($20.1m).

Days later, Bryan Mbeumo - courted by pretty much every side who finished in the top half last season - completed a £65m ($87.4m) move to Manchester United. That was a transfer Brentford had braced themselves for and they were happy to work with the Cameroon international in order to send him to his preferred destination. The club felt they maximised every last penny they could have out of that deal and Mbeumo left as an undisputed Brentford legend.

Then there was Yoane Wissa. Brentford have a price for every player, but they were reluctant to lose both he and Mbeumo, who combined for 39 of their 66 Premier League goals last season, at the same time. They would only sell for an extraordinary offer, though Wissa going on strike, burning bridges with fans and his refusal to play for the club could have made it harder to extract maximum value. Nevertheless, Newcastle ended up paying £55m ($74m) for the DR Congo attacker, roughly £15m more than the Bees had initially asked for in the first place.

But winning transfer deals doesn't necessarily mean you will win more games. It was all well and good turning a significant profit, but that would mean little if they went from top-half regulars to relegation battlers. The three promoted Championship sides all showed ambition in the market and started the season relatively well, only increasing outside concerns that Brentford would be dragged into a scrap without their manager, captain and two top scorers.

Appointing Andrews

Frank officially left Brentford on June 12, though the club began to look for successors some weeks prior after learning the Dane was being courted by Spurs even before to Postecoglou's exit on June 6. Frank had interviewed for other higher-profile jobs in the past, not least at Manchester United in May 2024 when INEOS were weighing up the future of Erik ten Hag, and Chelsea before they settled on Enzo Maresca that same summer.

For most of Frank's tenure, Brentford retained a shortlist of managers they would look to interview in the event he departed. If he hadn't done such an extraordinary job, maybe there wouldn't have been such hesitance over his replacement in the summer - they did not appoint his successor until June 27.

New Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior was considered when still the head coach of Strasbourg, while Ipswich's Kieran McKenna and Bodo/Glimt's Kjetil Knutsen had been admired for some time. After mulling over their next move, Brentford decided to prioritise continuity over outside revolution, despite the looming threat of the transfer window that was ahead of them.

They turned to Keith Andrews, who was appointed set-piece coach for the 2024-25 season and was notably not among the backroom staff that Frank wanted to take to Spurs, in part because the ex-Ireland midfielder had his sights on the top job back at the Gtech. The Bees' top brass were hugely impressed by Andrews' work even beyond his remit on dead-ball situations, becoming close to Frank and regularly accompanying him on scouting trips.

Andrews was seen as a fantastic communicator who had the command and held the attention of a room. In contemporary speak, he has 'aura' in abundance.

He previously interviewed for the manager's job at League Two side Milton Keynes Dons, where he spent three years as a player and served as assistant manager after retiring in 2015. Brentford didn't baulk at this rejection or Andrews' lack of experience as a head coach, instead seeing his potential and eventual appointment as a calculated risk. They would do all they could to surround a first-time manager with support or make a change before the situation could become dire.

Early struggles to major progress

Phil Giles, Brentford's director of football, said at the time of Andrews' appointment: "He's a very good coach and has clear ideas about how he wants the team to improve. We were looking for somebody not just to maintain what we've been doing but actually try and get better."

But alarm bells were ringing among fans when the Irishman took charge of his first competitive game - a 3-1 loss at Nottingham Forest which saw the Bees go into half-time three goals down.

"It was always going to be difficult but we made it harder for ourselves," he said post-match. "We knew their strengths and we knew the problems they would cause. Set-pieces were always going to be a threat.

"Get back to basics. Basics in the game is a dirty word at times, but you have to have an edge and do the ugly side of the game and compete as a team. I didn't think we did that. I saw it a lot in the first half and it's something we need to address. The second half was a lot better on a lot of fronts."

This was the first in a line of interviews after defeats that saw Andrews call out his players in public. He was similarly scathing after another 3-1 loss in September, this time away to rivals Fulham, which left the Bees 17th in the table, which to this day remains their lowest position ever in any Premier League season.

Brentford's form could have gone one of two ways. They may have crumbled under the weight of Andrews' brutal comments or they would get their act together. Fortunately, it turned out to be the latter.

If the Premier League season started from the matchday following the Fulham loss, Brentford would sit fourth in the table on 26 points from 15 matches, a record only bettered by Aston Villa (37), Arsenal (36) and Manchester City (33). At this pace, they would accrue 66 points across a 38-game campaign, a tally which would usually ensure Europa League or even Champions League qualification.

Andrews wanted his Brentford side to succeed at the "basics" before all else, and that's exactly what they've done. Frank was known for his big-game tinkering to take points off the Premier League's elite, while Andrews has implemented a style which is more universal. The Bees have played more long passes than any other team in the top-flight so far this season, even despite generally being more patient in possession and waiting for the right opening. Out of possession, their 4-3-3 becomes more of a diamond, with one of the wingers usually tucking in as they look to press.

Given how different the squad (and perhaps the club in general) looks compared to last season, it was imperative for Andrews to find a way to survive. So far, he has already excelled at that and has turbo-charged a team that many wrote off before a ball was kicked. He previously came in for major stick from Roy Keane and Martin O'Neill, but seems to be having the last laugh.

Thiago's breakout

While Andrews has been orchestrating from the touchline, Igor Thiago has been the story of Brentford's season on the pitch. Very few outsiders had heard of the striker a few months ago, yet he now holds the record for most goals scored by a Brazilian in a Premier League campaign. Remember, we're in mid-January.

Thiago was announced as a Brentford player in February 2024, only a few weeks after then-incumbent striker Toney had returned from a betting ban. He would join the Bees that summer from Club Brugge, where he would go on to finish with 29 goals in 55 games in his only season with the Belgian club. It didn't take much brain power to figure out this was Toney's replacement.

Following his Euro 2024 campaign with England, Toney was indeed sold, with Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli paying £40m ($53.8m) for a player who had only a year left to run on his contract. But his successor was unable to hit the ground running. Thiago suffered a devastating meniscus injury in pre-season, and a later knee problem ensured he played only 169 minutes across eight games in 2024-25, failing to register a single goal or assist.

Now, though, Thiago looks reborn. More than that, he looks unfazed in not just replacing the goals taken off the table by Toney, but Mbeumo and Wissa too. The record for most Premier League goals scored by a Brentford player in a single season is 20, set by Toney in 2022-23 and matched by Mbeumo in his final year. Thiago's already at 16 with 17 matches still to play.

Standing at 6'3" while boasting strength and pace, Thiago was ready-made for England in a physical sense, but it's his mental edge which has taken him over the top. He left his home in Brazil with Cruzeiro, then in the country's second tier, to join Bulgarian side Ludogorets Razgrad, initially among their reserves. An impressively quick adaptation period saw him swiftly promoted into the first-team squad ahead of schedule, and within a year he had earned an upgrade to Brugge in Belgium.

The serious injuries to Thiago's knee may have halted his on-pitch progress in some way, but it did allow him to settle into life in England off of it, the first time in his career he had been afforded such a luxury instead of being thrust into matches every few days. So much of Brentford's relatively scarce resources goes into player integration and improvement, with the likes of Mikkel Damsgaard, Kevin Schade and Keane Lewis-Potter also settling into key roles after their own starts at the club were disrupted by injuries and other blockades.

The irony is had Thiago been fit enough to play last season, he may not have been able to displace the dynamic duo of Wissa and Mbeumo anyway. It all worked out for the best.

Henderson's impact

There were fears at Brentford over how they planned to replace Arsenal-bound Norgaard. The club were prepared to knock back offers from their mid-table competitors such as Everton and Fulham, but the Gunners' knock was different and the midfielder was supremely intent on making the move.

Another window of opportunity opened to Brentford. Jordan Henderson, the ex-captain of Liverpool, was seeking a return to England after two years abroad, 18 months of which came at Ajax. He was impressed by the Bees' pitch to him, not only to come in and become an immediate veteran leader for a competitive Premier League team, but also to add new strings to his own bow at the age of 36, with Henderson still hopeful of making the England squad for the 2026 World Cup.

"Keith was very clear and honest with what he wanted," Henderson said to Brentford's club channels. "He told me what he thought about the team and the group, and what he thought was possible to achieve. He thought that I could come in and help the group, on and off the field, and I just got a good vibe when speaking to him. I've heard a lot of other people I know speak about him too and it was all good thing."

Earlier in the summer window, Brentford had signed Henderson's former Liverpool team-mate Caoimhin Kelleher as their new starting goalkeeper, replacing Bayer Leverkusen-bound Mark Flekken. Both Anfield alumni have been among Brentford's best players this season.

It's helped that Henderson has tangibly played well as opposed to simply coming in and forming an extended arm of Andrews' coaching staff. Eyebrows were raised when Thomas Tuchel decided to recall the midfielder into his squad in 2025 while still at Ajax, but judging by his Premier League performances, Henderson has indeed earned his place in the Three Lions setup again.

How do Brentford keep doing it?

Just as Chelsea have spent the last three years trying to be an expensive version of Brighton, Premier League clubs continue to look on in envy at Brentford and the way they work. If they were ever going to have a season plunged into crisis, it ought to have been this one, yet it's turning out to be one of their most successful in history.

There isn't a lone ingredient to their secret sauce. It all stems from owner Matthew Benham, the businessman and statistician who previously worked with Brighton counterpart Tony Bloom before a falling out in the early 2000s. He has created a culture that goes beyond typical buzzwords such as 'alignment' and 'accountability' - as important as those two factors actually have been to the Bees - and has preferred to lean on Brentford's unique status as a community club within a massive city like London. If the club are to turn a profit and make money, it will be through means that doesn't involve milking fans for everything they've got.

That caring nature spreads all throughout the club. Frank, universally adored by everyone in every fibre of Brentford, fit in perfectly with this, and it was a plus-point of promoting Andrews. Director of football Giles and Lee Dykes, technical director, are two of the best operators in the business, but have also been praised for the personable element of their recruitment. Peter Gilham, the longest-serving stadium announcer in England having first taken on the role in 1969, is also a player liaison and has a universal approval rating among pretty much every man who has worn the red-and-white of the Bees.

Brentford need these human contributions in order to maximise their position as a leading user of analytics and statistics. It's partly why everyone at the club furiously rejects the 'Moneyball' tag they are constantly attributed with.

You put all of these factors together and you get a smart club operating on the same page. Brentford are reaping their own rewards while taking advantage of the mayhem and chaos which has infected many other Premier League sides.

Bees in Europe?

This Premier League season has been built more on parity than any other in recent times. There's an almighty scramble not only for European places in general, but a lucrative ticket to the Champions League. It's completely possible, if not even probable at this stage, that finishing fifth would be enough to qualify automatically again.

Why can't Brentford take one of those spots? If the Premier League is now shaking out in favour of the clever clubs, why would it be a surprise if they ended the season in the top seven or eight? If anything, they should pivot their internal expectations and actively chase down that target.

Brentford in Europe. It's on the cards. The traditionally fourth-biggest team in west London is the leader of that pack. Victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, a place where they have won on three of their last four visits, on Saturday would cement their local standing. They've more than earned the right to be in this position.