The sacking of manager Brian Little by Conference North outfit Gainsborough Trinity on 22nd August shocked few supporters at the club, and seemed a fitting response by chairman Peter Swann to a poor 2010/11 season and a 4-0 thrashing the previous weekend against Stalybridge Celtic. Little’s dismissal leaves his managerial career in tatters. Failing to establish himself in English football’s sixth tier is a sorry state of affairs for a man with three League Cup winner’s medals in his possession.
Those who have seen Little as a player, either at the time of his career or on video since, remember a wonderful talent. Little was a brilliantly tricky Aston Villa forward, a natural footballer who seemed to skate across the muddied and knackered pitches of 1970s England; he was also, notwithstanding an ultimately abortive move across the city, a one-club man.
His crowning moment came on 13th April 1977. With Villa and Everton unable to be separated even by a replay in the League Cup final, the second replay took place at Old Trafford and resulted in a 3-2 win for Little’s Villa, their second League Cup triumph in three seasons. Chris Nicholl’s goal was the match’s most celebrated moment but it was Little who scored the other two – including a dramatic late winner – after his hat-trick in the semi-final replay had put Villa into the final in the first place. Idolised by the Holte End, Little’s career was curtailed by injury at 26 and he quickly went into coaching.
Ron Atkinson was sacked by Villa after what in hindsight was a very respectable spell, leaving the club in November 1994. Little was his natural replacement, having earned his spurs at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Darlington before taking over from Gordon Lee at Leicester City and transforming them from Second Division relegation survivors into playoff contenders at the first time attempt. At the third consecutive time of asking the Foxes were guided by Little into the Premier League after a famous final win over Derby County but, with their manager’s entire playing career having taken place at Villa Park, Leicester were all but destined to lose their man. Doug Ellis swooped, and Little made a glorious return to Birmingham.
Naturally, he received a hero’s welcome and he quickly set about earning it. After steering Villa to safety on the last day of the 1994/95 season, Little began rebuilding the team and the following year is looked back upon fondly by supporters of the club. Villa had to settle for fourth in the Premier League and were beaten comfortably by Liverpool at Old Trafford in the FA Cup Semi-Final, but triumphed at Wembley in the League Cup, thumping Leeds United 3-0 thanks to a perfect goalscoring trio: flawed young star Savo Milosevic, local hero Ian Taylor and Villa icon Dwight Yorke. But just like his predecessor, Coca-Cup Cup success proved to be the high point for Little, and he resigned in 1998 with the team struggling to get close to the previous season’s fifth-placed finish.
Thus began the downward trend in Little’s managerial career, a journey that may now have found its nadir. Short and ineffective spells at Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion followed, before Little left the Midlands to take over at Hull City. A slightly better stint with Tranmere Rovers was undone by the now customary Little collapse, with Rovers almost relegated in 2006. Over a year after leaving Prenton Park, the former Villa star was signed up by Wrexham, who were relegated from the Football League at the end of his first partial season in charge. The expected promotion challenge didn’t arrive, and Little packed his bags once again.
And in 2009, almost two years to the day before he was sacked, Little arrived at Gainsborough Trinity; his time there followed a familiar pattern. No improvement was forthcoming, and the club was dogged by relegation worries in the final weeks of Little’s reign.
So what is it about Brian Little that creates this apparent malaise within the clubs he manages? Having dropped from the Premier League and ultimately fallen effectively out of the bottom end of Tier Six, questions over his ability to do the job are piling up.
Having achieved little of note since leaving his highest profile job, it’s worth reconsidering his early success with Leicester and Villa. Even in the cold light of recent woes, the successes Little had at his highest point were not achieved by fluke or fortune. At Filbert Street he consistently took Leicester into the playoffs and eventually into the Premier League, restoring their top flight status after relegation – alongside Villa – in 1987. At Villa Park, the exciting 1995/96 season was embarked upon by a team very much bearing Little’s mark; his rebuilt squad performed well and played the kind of attractive football many Villa supporters say has yet to return to B6.
However, the collapse of his prestige is undeniable and there is no credibility now in an argument that any club should take a chance on Little. Tragically, for this superb player who made a bright start in management, there’s simply too much water under the bridge since he last turned a club on its head and dragged it kicking and screaming up the table. The failures are adding up, and Little’s reputation is shot.
Tags: Aston Villa, Brian Little, Gainsborough Trinity, Leicester City