It's the result that nobody really saw coming. He was obviously doing something right at the club when Keith was handed the reins in the last season but most clubs would consider it madness to appoint a person with no real management experience the top job in a club that had sold off some of their best players in the summer.
It looked almost like a mission doomed to failure from the start. Currently they sit seventh in the league with a realistic chance of making Europe and Keith has just been handed a bumper contract to 2032. The Irishman has also led the club to a Carabao Cup quarter-final and FA Cup fifth round, where Brentford travel to West Ham United.
If nothing else he will get a huge payout if and when they do terminate it down the line as most premier league clubs are want to do after any slight bad run.
He was already signed up to a three year contract from last summer so I never understand why clubs tie in managers for this long when the average tenure is probably less than three years any way. They obviously think that other teams are circling around him waiting to swoop in the summer.... Liverpool, Spurs maybe. Both could be looking at somebody new very soon for a long term job and be impressed with what they see.
I'll even ask AI.
The average length of a Premier League manager's reign is about 891 days, though the median is shorter, around 607 days.
While many last less than two seasons, managers like Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta, who have stayed for several years, are exceptions.
So he now has a six year contract that will cost them a lot of money to break if results aren't as strong next year.
Now he still has a decent team and to be fair they are playing really well under his guidance but we all know that most of these teams have a good year and then lose a player or two and end up closer to relegation than to Europe the year after.
It will be interesting to see if he can be the exception to the rule instead of proving it. At least they are away to almost relegated Burnley at the weekend which is a great chance to pick up three more points and with some other tough fixtures a chance to keep up with Liverpool who are only five points ahead of them right now.