Aston Villa Readying For Relegation

The news coming out if Villa Park this season has not been the greatest. In fact you could say that there has been very little to no good news this season as far as the Villains fans can see. Today though, it was announced that ex Manager, Brian Little, was to be one of two new members of the Villa board, with the other being David Bernstein.

Manager for Villa between 1994 and 1998 there will be little introduction needed for Brian. As a player he was there during their low point, as they found themselves in the third tier of English football. He was also there when they won the League Cup twice, first in 1975 and then again in 1977, and I'm sure that is part of why he was one of the founding members of the Aston Villa Hall of Fame. His playing career was cut short while having a medical at local rivals Birmingham (which may have tainted the love felt from the Villa fans had it gone through).

Stepping into management six years later he would eventually work his way back to Aston Villa fourteen years after he'd finished playing for them. There he would lift the League Cup yet again for the claret and blue, this time as manager. Playing over 300 times and managing them in another 164, Little is exactly the sort of footballing head needed in the Villa boardroom.

David Bernstein was long a supporter of Manchester City before taking over from Francis Lee as Chairman. The side were a shadow of the one that dominated the English League in the 1960s and 1970s and certainly far from dreaming of the team they have now.

He managed the financial aspect of the club as the fell to the third tier of English football before coming straight back up and flipping between the Premier League and Championship. I think most City supporters credit him with what it has now become, as if he hadn’t done what he had in the late 1990s, then surely the money would not have come in a decade later.

He left City in 2003 with a new stadium and the club have been Premier League ever since. He left us having negotiated the move to the stadium, an academy, new training facility and a big-name manager in Kevin Keegan. Bernstein himself would reemerge in the high profile football world as FA Chairman in 2011, just as City won their first trophy for multiple decades.

Before his time at the FA, he helped get the Wembley Stadium budget back on track by refinancing the loans taken out. His time at the FA was short, though, as he was required to step down at age 70, which he reached in May 2013.

If Brian Little knows Aston Villa then Bernstein knows how to get footballing money moving efficiently and gets the most progress for the Pound, bang for his Buck and evolution for the Euro! If Villa are to be relegated this season, which it is looking more likely than not, then they are making sure they are in the best position to bounce straight back up.

Jason is a Freelance Soccer Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @PACityboy and www.facebook.com/jasonbardwell1979