Written by
Simon Austin
July 4, 2025
Valencia Assistant Martin Drury has been appointed to Keith Andrews’ staff at Brentford, joining Mehmet Ali and Neil MacFarlane.
Drury has spent the last six months as Assistant to Carlos Corberán at La Liga side Valencia, having previously worked with him at West Brom.
Prior to this he was Under-15s Lead at Manchester United for two years and before that Head of Coaching at Bradford City Academy.
In total, he worked for the Bantams for more than six years, holding a variety of roles, including U14s to U16s Lead, U18s Coach and First-Team Assistant. It was here that he first got to know Corberán, who was Under-23s Lead and Assistant to Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United at the time.
At Valencia, Drury specialised in individual development and it is this track record that has appealed to Brentford, who have appointed him First-Team Coach. The Bees have been busy assembling a coaching team around new Head Coach Keith Andrews, who was promoted from Set Piece Coach last month.
When Thomas Frank left the Bees to become Tottenham Head Coach last month, he took three staff with him: Justin Cochrane (Assistant), Chris Haslam (Head of Performance & Assistant) and Joe Newton (Coach-Analyst).
Andrews said: “Martin has been on a long journey and had lots of different experiences”
Drury joins Mehmet Ali, the former Arsenal Under-21 Head Coach who was appointed Brentford Assistant last week.
Ali has spent the last three years as Arsenal’s U21 Head Coach, having previously been their U23s Assistant and Reading U23s boss.
Andrews said: “Mehmet came on to our radar a few weeks ago. We went through a process, interviewing several candidates, and he really stood out.
“I could tell from his personality he’s someone I’ll love working with. When he presented to us, and we started discussing football, it was clear that we are very closely aligned on the game.
“Mehmet has a player-development background with Spurs and Reading. He had a hybrid role at Arsenal, predominately working with their U21s but also very closely with Mikel Arteta and the first team.”
Meanwhile, Neil MacFarlane has been promoted from B Team Head Coach to First-Team Coach. MacFarlane had been B Team boss since May 2019 and Andrews said: “Neil is a greatly experienced coach and understands the club’s values and culture.”
Sam Saunders, who spent seven-and-a-half years at Brentford, making 206 appearances, has been promoted from B Team Assistant to Head Coach. He had been Assistant since retiring from playing in 2019.
Brentford are currently advertising on TGG for a new First Team Set Piece Coach to replace Andrews, who previously held the role before becoming Head Coach.
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