Keith Andrews

[elatedscum]

Opening fixtures:
Forest (A)
Villa (H)
Sunderland (A)
Chelsea (H)
Fulham (A)
Man U (H)
Man City (H)
WHU (A)
L'pool (H)

So not too hard to start off, before it gets noticeably harder?

Getting 9 points from those games would be an excellent return. You'd expect to beat Sunderland. Draws away to Fulham and West Ham would be good results. The rest are European sides (and Man Utd who should be a lot better next season)

[Kingdom]

He was our best player at Euro 2012 and probably a bit underrated for us as he was involved in some dreadful displays.
But he was solid.
Him and Whelan in Paris absolutely bossed it.

As a pundit, he comes across as a total shaper. That coupled with the clothes range is just a bit….unusual for Irish people I suppose. It’s a bit McGregor I suppose. Or maybe Paul Galvin. We’re not used to it. But as I said, best of luck to him. I hope he succeeds

Thanks Fixer, you sparked a memory there with the Paris comment. It was Andrews who sparked off against Diarra towards the end of the first leg when the French were starting to go all Frenchy and arrogant.

And his missus I'm pretty sure is the designer (she was charged with the Euro 2012 squad outfits) - the comparison with Galvin is a god one.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Wish him the best. He's kind of had a career of coming out of nowhere to suddenly being at the top so there must be something that we don't see as much. I've a feeling they're going to start the season strong. Will be very curious to see how he handles things when the inevitable bad spell kicks off

This - Brentford are a very well run club and they tend to make good choices. Appointing Andrews is a risk and survival in the PL this season would be a good result for them and him. Surrounding himself with good coaches will help and he has started with getting that U-21 coach from Arsenal who has a good reputation and O'Connor has a developing reputation as well.

I hope it works out well for Andrews (and the Irish players at Brentford).

[SkStu]

Wissa left the Brentford pre-season camp... they really do seem to be in trouble this year... didnt know if it would be more depressing to put it in here or in Kellehers thread...

[Eirambler]

Nothing on show today to alleviate the fears held by Irish fans about this appointment. It's just one game but their fixture list for the next while looks awful - away to the teams they may fancy themselves to beat while the home games look very difficult.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Brentford were poor and seem to be in trouble - they have lost some big players and haven't replaced them. West Ham are another team in trouble - a soft underbelly like all Potter teams - never thought he was anything other than a spoofer.

[ifk101]

Brentford were constantly getting pinned in. What possession they had in the first half consisted of slow, lateral balls across the back line as they were incapable of moving through the lines. Where have we seen that before …

[EalingGreen]

Brentford were poor and seem to be in trouble - they have lost some big players and haven't replaced them.

Early days.

They were missing midfielder Damsgaard, their POTY last season. Thiago (£30m striker signed from Cercle Bruges last summer) is back from a year out injured, while Rico Henry (super LB, with England potential at one stage) back after 2 years out injured, so both will take a few games to get up to speed. While Jordan Henderson wassn't quite fit enough to start (that'll come), and Dango Ouattara, new £42m signing from Bournemouth, will also be ready soon, possibly next match.

On top of that, they have a number of young players - eg Carvalho, Yarmolek, Kayode - who probably aren't yet ready to take a leading role at this level, but give them another six months and 20-odd games, and they should probably prove good enough.

Which is not to say that the club will pull all this off - it's a tough league and getting tougher all the time - but whatever happens, they won't panic. Remember, when Thomas Frank was appointed, his record in his first 10 games was W1, D1, L8.