Brian Little

Brian Little (born 25 November 1953) is an English football manager and former player.

On leaving school in May 1969, Little signed for Aston Villa who would be relegated to the Third Division for the first and only time in their history the following season.

As a player, Little was a striker who spent his entire career for Aston Villa in a career that spanned from 1971 to 1980.

He played a full season for the Aston Villa Youth side and subsequently made his senior debut on 30 October 1971, in a 4–1 win over Blackburn Rovers in the Third Division at Villa Park.

He only made two senior appearances that season but was a key player in Villa's FA Youth Cup winning side of 1972.

By 1973–74, with Villa in the Second Division, he was a regular first team player.

He made 247 league appearances, scoring 60 goals and earning a single cap for England in 1975.

As a player he won the Football League Cup on two occasions in 1975 and 1977.

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, scoring two goals in the second replay victory over Everton in the latter final, as well as helping the club climb from the Third to First Division in the early part of the decade, scoring 20 league goals in the 1974–75 season when they were runners-up and clinched promotion to the First Division.

His playing career came to a halt in 1980 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.

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.

Brian Little was appointed caretaker manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers on 31 August 1986 as successor to Sammy Chapman.

His appointment came at the end of the blackest spell in the club's history, when three successive relegations had dragged them from the First Division to the Fourth.

He oversaw a steady start to the 1986–87 season before Graham Turner was appointed manager 36 days later.

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 were bottom of the Football League in the Fourth Division.

He was unable to prevent them from getting relegated to the 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, and by this stage he was on the radar of bigger clubs looking to appoint a new manager.

In June 1991, Leicester City appointed Little as their replacement for Gordon Lee.

The Foxes had just avoided relegation to the Third and Little was chosen as the man to turn the club's fortunes around.

They emerged as promotion contenders in his first season in charge at Filbert Street.

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 consecutive play-offs with a 2–1 win in the final against East Midlands rivals Derby County.

As a manager he has been in charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Darlington before taking a job in with Leicester City, during his tenure he secured promotion to the Premier League by winning the play-offs in 1994.

He was then appointed as manager of fellow top flight side Aston Villa where he went on to win the Football League Cup in 1996.

He had later spells in charge of Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Hull City, Tranmere Rovers, Wrexham, Gainsborough Trinity and Jersey.

Little is regarded as an all-time great at Villa Park, and in 2007 he was named as one of the 12 founder members of the Aston Villa Hall of Fame.

Although his playing career was over, Little remained on the Aston Villa payroll as youth team coach.