Brian Little (footballer)

Football manager infobox
playername = Brian Little
nickname = Little Brian
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1953|11|25|df=y
cityofbirth = Horden
countryofbirth = England
currentclub =
position = Forward
years = 1970–1979
clubs = Aston Villa
caps(goals) = 247 (60)
nationalyears = 1975
nationalteam = England
nationalcaps(goals) = 001 0(0)
manageryears = 1986
1989–1991
1991–1994
1994–1998
1998–1999
1999–2000
2000–2002
2003–2006
2007–2008
managerclubs = Wolverhampton Wanderers
Darlington
Leicester City
Aston Villa
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Hull City
Tranmere Rovers
Wrexham

Brian Little (born 25 November 1953 in Horden, County Durham) is an English former football player and manager who is currently out of work having parted company with Wrexham.

Playing career

On leaving school in 1970 Little signed for Aston Villa who had just been relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history. He progressed through the youth ranks, winning an FA Youth Cup winners' medal along the way. He made 247 appearances for the club and scored 60 goals, and made one full international appearance for England in 1975.

He was part of Villa's League Cup winning teams of 1975 and 1977 as well helping the club climb from the Third to First Division in the early part of the decade.

His playing career came to a halt in 1979 when he retired at the age of 26 due to a knee injury. The injury was discovered when Little was undergoing a medical at Villa's local rivals Birmingham City. This meant his intended transfer there was cancelled. He was a flamboyant forward who formed a particularly prolific partnership with Andy Gray, and is regarded as an all-time great at Villa Park.fact|date=April 2008

Coaching and Managerial Career

Although his playing career was over, Little remained on the Aston Villa payroll as youth team coach. When manager Tony Barton was sacked in the summer of 1984, Little's contract was also terminated and he became first-team coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

When Little arrived at Wolverhampton Wanderers, the club was in the middle of three consecutive relegations and by 1986 was in the Fourth Division for the first time, with huge debts. When manager Sammy Chapman resigned, Little became manager on a temporary basis but resigned in late September to be replaced by Graham Turner, who had been sacked as Aston Villa manager earlier that month.

Middlesbrough

Shortly after leaving Wolverhampton, Little was recruited as a first team coach by Middlesbrough manager Bruce Rioch. Like Wolves, Middlesbrough were a financially troubled club and had narrowly escaped bankruptcy. Little was an important part of the club's coaching staff as Middlesbrough's form improved, and with two successive promotions they were in the First Division for the 1988–89 season. The season ended in relegation for Middlesbrough but in February Little left the Ayresome Park coaching staff and became manager of Darlington.

Darlington

Darlington were bottom of the Football League in the Fourth Division. He was unable to prevent them from getting relegated to the GM Vauxhall Conference but they were promoted back into the League at the first time of asking. 1990–91 brought more success for Little and Darlington as they won the Fourth Division championship.

Leicester City

By this time, bigger clubs were taking an interest in the 37-year-old and in June 1991 Leicester City appointed him as their replacement for Gordon Lee. The Foxes had just avoided relegation to the Third Division for the first time in their history and Little was seen as the right man to turn the club's fortunes around.

At the end of 1991–92, Leicester came fourth in the Second Division and qualified for the promotion playoffs, the winners securing a place in the new Premier League. They overcame Cambridge United in the semi-finals and were drawn with Blackburn Rovers in the final. But their promotion hopes were dashed when Blackburn striker Mike Newell, a former Leicester player, scored a penalty which took the Lancashire side into the new league.

At the end of the 1992–93 season, Leicester qualified for the playoffs again in the new Division One. They overcame Portsmouth in the semi-finals but in the final were 3–0 down shortly after half-time to Swindon Town. They fought back to bring the scoreline to 3–3, however Swindon scored a controversial late fourth goal from the penalty spot to progress to the Premier League.

In 1993–94, however, Leicester won their third consequetive play-offs with a 2–1 win in the final against East Midlands rivals Derby County. In November 1994 Little returned to Aston Villa to replace Ron Atkinson. Leicester's first Premier League season was a difficult one and they were relegated in second from bottom place, with just six league wins all season.

Aston Villa

Eighteen months earlier, Aston Villa had finished runners-up in the first Premier League. When Little arrived they were at the foot of the division. Significant players like Nigel Spink, Earl Barrett, Shaun Teale, Ray Houghton, Garry Parker, Dalian Atkinson and Dean Saunders were starting to age. A 1–1 draw with relegated Norwich City on the last day of the season meant that Little was successful in his bid to keep Villa in the Premiership.

In the place of the fading stars came a whole set of new players in the Villa line-up. Young players like Mark Bosnich and Ugo Ehiogu were now getting more first team chances, but Villa also made a large number of new signings between November 1994 and August 1995, including Gary Charles, Ian Taylor, Mark Draper and Savo Milošević. The new look Villa team gelled well, and 1995–96 was the most successful season at Villa Park in years. The club finished fourth in the Premiership, reached the FA Cup semi-finals and won the Coca-Cola Cup with a 3–0 win over Leeds at Wembley. Trinidad and Tobago striker Dwight Yorke had now firmly established himself as a world-class goalscorer.

Villa qualified for the 1996–97 UEFA Cup and although they were knocked out at the first stage by Swedish part-timers Helsingborg, they qualified for the 1997–98 competition after finishing fifth in the Premiership.

In February 1998, Brian Little resigned after just over three years as Aston Villa manager, with the club in the bottom half of the Premiership. But the club's next manager John Gregory turned results around and they finished high enough for a UEFA Cup place.

Stoke City

Little was appointed manager of Stoke City in May 1998. The Staffordshire club had ended their first season at the new Britannia Stadium with relegation from Division One. By the middle of the 1998–99 season Stoke looked to be well on course for automatic promotion back to Division One. However, a drastic loss of form in the second half of the season meant that Stoke did not finish high enough to even qualify for the Division Two playoffs, and Little handed in his resignation.

West Bromwich Albion

Before the 1999–00 season was underway, Little was back in employment as manager of West Bromwich Albion. The club were languishing in Division One and had been outside the top division since 1986, but Little was unable to revive Albion's fortunes.

In January 2000 the promising Italian midfielder Enzo Maresca was transferred to Juventus for £4 million as Albion battled against relegation. Little was sacked in March 2000 after just eight months in charge and replaced by Gary Megson.

Hull City

In April 2000, just one month after leaving The Hawthorns, Brian Little was appointed manager of Division Three strugglers Hull City. The Tigers were hit by huge debts and were locked out of Boothferry Park for one game by the landlord, former tennis player David Lloyd.

By the end of the 2000–01 season, Hull had been saved from closure by new owner Adam Pearson, and the club's future looked brighter. They reached the Division Three playoffs, but lost to Leyton Orient in the semi-finals.

By February 2002 Hull City looked well on course for automatic promotion from Division Three. But Little unexpectedly announced his resignation from the club, [cite news
date=2002-02-28
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/hull_city/1845418.stm
title=Tigers stay tight-lipped
publisher=BBC Sport
accessdate=2007-06-28] and under his successor Jan Mølby, the club's fortunes slipped dramatically and they could not even finish high enough for a playoff place.

Tranmere Rovers

In October 2003 Brian Little made a return to football management with Tranmere Rovers F.C., who were in Division Two. [cite news
date=2003-10-12
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tranmere_rovers/3185708.stm
title=Tranmere appoint Little
publisher=BBC Sport
accessdate=2007-06-28]

His first season with the Merseyside club was a success. When he took over they were battling against relegation. But by the end of the season they had climbed up to eighth place and had reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup. He won the Second Division manager of the month award for April 2004. [cite news
date=2004-05-03
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tranmere_rovers/3679783.stm
title=Little named top boss
publisher=BBC Sport
accessdate=2007-06-28] In his first full season as manager, Little guided Tranmere to a third-place finish in League One but they lost in the playoffs to miss out on promotion.

Tranmere began 2005–06 as League One promotion favourites,fact|date=April 2008 but at the turn of 2006 they were facing a relegation battle. The club only avoided relegation with one game to go and, due to the club's poor finishing position in League One, Little left the club by mutual consent on 5 May 2006. [cite news
date=2006-05-05
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tranmere_rovers/4976782.stm
title=Tranmere boss Little steps down
publisher=BBC Sport
accessdate=2007-06-28]

Wrexham

In November 2007, Little returned to management at Wrexham, replacing Brian Carey. [Cite news
title=Little confirmed as Wrexham boss
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wrexham/7092852.stm
publisher=BBC Sport
date=2007-11-15
accessdate=2007-11-15] With five games remaining in the season the club were in the relegation zone, seven points off safety. They were relegated to the Conference on April 22 2008 after a 2-0 loss at Hereford United. However, Little signed a two-year contract, promising to revive the club's fortunes. [Cite news
title= Little signs new Wrexham contract
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wrexham/7342829.stm
publisher=BBC Sport
date=2008-04-11
accessdate=2008-04-11]

Little parted company with Wrexham by "mutual consent" on 27 September 2008 following an unsuccessful start to life in the Blue Square Premier after relegation. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wrexham/7639510.stm |title=Little parts company with Wrexham |publisher=BBC Sport |date=27 September 2008]

Honours

As a player

Aston Villa
*Third Division Title winner: 1971–72
*Football League Cup winner: 1974–75, 1976–77

As a manager

Darlington
*GM Vauxhall Conference Title winner: 1989–90
*Fourth Division Title winner: 1990–91

Leicester City
*First Division Play-Off Final runner-up: 1991–92
*Nationwide Division One Play-Off Final runner-up: 1992–93
*Nationwide Division One Play-Off Final winner: 1993–94

Aston Villa
*Coca-Cola Cup winner: 1995–96

Managerial stats

References

External links

*soccerbase|4552|Brian Little
*soccerbase (manager)|252|Brian Little
* [http://www.astonvilla.dk/legends/brian_little.htm Playing & Managerial Statistics] at astonvilla.dk

Persondata
NAME=Little, Brian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Footballer, football manager
DATE OF BIRTH=November 25, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH=Horden, England
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=