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.
Contrast it with Blackburn Rovers. People were saying that they were going down, but they appointed Sam Allardyce, a manager who has been in that situation before and been successful.
Mike Ashley did not have a Plan A, a Plan B, a Plan anything. It was from there that the fans got disillusioned, and the whole structure fell apart.
Brian Little was speaking as part of Setanta Ireland's exclusive Premier League coverage.