Brian Little
Brian is a distinguished former manager and a regular pundit on Setanta Ireland.
We will be relaying his thoughts on some of the matches he covers for us as he supplies an interesting insight into the action and big football stories.
The former Aston Villa striker was capped once by England and managed the likes of Leicester City, Villa, Stoke City, West Brom and Hull City after hanging up his boots.
In 1996, he guided Villa to fourth place in The Premiership and won the Coca-Cola Cup courtesy of a 3-0 victory against Leeds United at Wembley.
Mike Ashley caused Toon mess
Newcastle United's releagtion has its roots in Mike Ashley's failure to appoint a top-class and experienced manager to replace Kevin Keegan.
At the start of the season Newcastle went to Manchester United, got a draw at Old Trafford, and all the supporters must have been confident of a decent season.
But that was as good as it got. Week in and week out, there has been controversy within the club, and around the club. The manager Kevin Keegan left, the chairman Mike Ashley had no reasonable explanation for that, and with no replacement set up, they had to appoint a caretaker in Joe Kinnear.
Why was there not a plan? Why was there not someone in mind for the day Kevin Keegan left? This is a so-called top club, so why was there no top-class manager to take them through to the end of the season?
I don’t want to show disrespect to Joe Kinnear, but Joe had not been in the game for four years. He went in to an unbelievably difficult job, when they needed a bigger man.