MK Dons in talks with ex-player for manager vacancy - he's currently coaching at Premier League club | OneFootball

Keith Andrews could be set for a monumental return to Stadium MK

MK Dons are on the hunt for a new head coach, and they have interviewed former player Keith Andrews as part of their search.

The Dons have had an incredibly underwhelming season, which has come after they collapsed in last year's League Two play-off semi-finals, where they went down 8-1 on aggregate to Crawley Town.

Kuwaiti businessman Fahad Al Ghanim took over at the start of the season, but just a month later, manager Mike Williamson departed for league rivals Carlisle United, and whilst his successor Scott Lindsey went on a run of six straight league wins not long after his arrival at Stadium MK, he too departed at the start of March, having won just 10 of his 29 matches in charge.

Ben Gladwin will likely stay in interim charge until the end of the season, but the MK hierarchy are searching for Lindsey's permanent successor, and it appears they are eyeing up one of their former players.

Keith Andrews interviewed for MK Dons managerial vacancy

According to a report from The Evening Standard, Keith Andrews is one of the names that has been interviewed for the job, in what would be a return to a club he played for on two separate occasions if he were to get the job.

Currently a set-piece coach at Premier League outfit Brentford, Andrews signed for the Dons as a player in 2006 from Hull City, and he scored 19 league goals across two seasons in League Two before securing a move to Premier League outfit Blackburn Rovers in 2008, in what was a £750,000 deal, which could have rised to £1 million with add-ons.

Andrews played 84 Premier League games for Blackburn and West Brom, but whilst a Bolton Wanderers player, he returned to MK for the final stint of his career during the 2014-15 season, helping the club over the line and to the Championship for the very first time.

Following retirement in 2015, he carved out a career in coaching almost immediately, joining MK's coaching staff, and he's gone on to bigger and better things since - it now remains to be seen as to whether or not he will be the preferred candidate, but it has been reported that the club have interviewed at least four potential candidates.

Andrews is currently specialising at set-pieces under Thomas Frank's Brentford coaching staff, but he's been at several other clubs in his career so far - including the Dons as mentioned in 2015.

He was Stephen Kenny's assistant for the Republic of Ireland national team - who he played 35 times for himself - for three years between 2020 and 2023, and then in late 2023 he linked up with Chris Wilder at Sheffield United as part of his coaching staff.