Former Reading youth chief Mehmet Ali has taken his first step into senior coaching, joining the staff at Premier League side Brentford.
Ali joined Berkshire from Tottenham Hotspur in 2019 and served as Under-21 assistant manager before taking over as head coach from August 2020 until December 2021.
The Turkish coach joined Arsenal in January 2022 as an Under-21 assistant manager before taking over as manager in July 2022 and managing against the Royals in the EFL Trophy.
After 18 months in North London, Ali has moved to West London to join Keith Andrews’ new coaching staff at Brentford.
The former Republic of Ireland international and coach succeeds Thomas Frank, who led the Bees to their most successful years but has now joined Tottenham Hotspur.
Andrews had previously worked as a set-piece coach at the GTech Stadium, but has now taken on his first managerial role, appointing Ali alongside Martin Drury and Neil MacFarlane.
Andrews stated, “Mehmet came across our radar a few weeks ago. We went through a process of interviewing various individuals, and he truly stood out.
“I could tell from his personality that he’s someone I’d enjoy working with. When he presented to us and we began discussing football, it was evident that we had extremely similar views on the game.
“Mehmet has experience developing players for Tottenham Hotspur and Reading. He had a hybrid role at Arsenal, working primarily with their U21s but also closely with Mikel Arteta and the first squad.”
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