Arsenal legend Ian Wright has called out Brentford head coach Keith Andrews for his ‘horrible’ comments about Martin O’Neill back in 2018.
Andrews took charge of the Premier League side in June, replacing long-serving manager Thomas Frank at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Before entering football management, Andrews, capped 35 times by the Republic of Ireland, worked as a pundit for Sky Sports covering his country.
After a defeat to Wales in 2018 – which marked Ireland’s fifth competitive game without a win – Andrews blasted O’Neill, who was managing the nation at the time, in a scathing attack on TV.
Andrews claimed O’Neill had overseen one of the worst years in Irish football history and said his side were ‘clueless’ to their own shortcomings.
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With O’Neill having been critical of Andrews this season at Brentford, the duo’s fall-out has been discussed by a number of pundits on The Overlap.
‘He (Andrews) called Martin “clueless” years ago on TV,’ Roy Keane said. ‘He was a pundit.’
‘You shouldn’t call a manager clueless,’ Gary Neville responded.
‘Of course you shouldn’t,’ Keane added.
Jill Scott continued: ‘You shouldn’t – but I’m just like, do you remember everything people say about you?’
Wright then opined: ‘You’d remember that Jill, f*** me. That was a horrible thing to say.’
What did Andrews say about O’Neill?
‘Where it is right now is he (O’Neill) signed a contract in January and I would be amazed if the hierarchy (Irish FA) are happy with that because if they were to change now, it would be too much of an outlay,’ Andrews said.
‘It’s same old, same old. I can’t see it changing, but do I think it should? Probably.
‘It has been one of the worst years in living memory, in the last 10 to 15 years in Irish football, it really has, it’s has been that bad.
‘A lot of it is down to Martin, of course it is. There has been an old guard shift in the last few years, certain players retiring, top quality individual players that have made a difference in key areas at key times in games.
‘You have to play the hand you are dealt. There is no transfer window, you can’t go and buy players. I do agree certain players are missing but they should still be doing better over the last year.
‘He (O’Neill) mentioned about technical ability and we do lack in certain areas, there’s no doubt about that, but they don’t have a clue what they’re doing.’