Ex Managers

[davieG]

Brian Little

Took over at Aston Villa in November 1994, three days after resigning from Leicester City

December 3 1994 Leicester City 1 Aston Villa 1

I won't forget my first trip back to Leicester in a hurry. When I got into Filbert Street I think that, of the 20,000 crowd, the majority had "Judas" placards or pieces of paper with "Judas" written on them and they were forever throwing them in my direction.

A lot of people also had a big shout at me. I'd only been at Villa about a week and it was my second game in charge. It certainly wasn't a pleasant day and I think it took another two or three years before I returned to watch a game at Leicester. I kept out of the way because I thought that was best.

Now things are fine; I've been there loads of times and we get on well, but there was a lot of anger back then. I was on edge going back to the club after leaving in very controversial circumstances and I had expected a reaction but the ferocity of it all was a shock.

Things had started at about 8.30 in the morning when I got a call from a friend asking if I'd seen the Sun. There was a big headline - "Little Liar" - which was going to wind up the Leicester fans even more.

I was disappointed someone had set the day up in the media with that story. They had taken a little paragraph from a letter I had written to the Leicester board and it was a paragraph that didn't fall in line with the rest of the letter and made it look as if I'd said I wasn't going to go to Villa.

In fact, as was proven later, I'd had permission to talk to Villa. Leicester said they were going to take me to court but the initial procedure was kicked out because they couldn't deny that they'd given me verbal permission to speak to Villa.

I was made to look more of a bad lad than I was, but I also could have handled things better. From the outset the fans and local press asked me whether I wanted to go to Villa and I should have said: "I've got to talk to them. I had 20-odd years there as a kid." But I kept saying: "I'm not sure; we'll see what happens."

I was messing around in that respect and the Leicester fans' reaction was understandable but also difficult to take, especially as during my three years there we took them to three play-off finals and into the Premiership.

Later in my first season at Villa I was 4-1 up against Leicester with 15 minutes to go and they came back to 4-4, so I won quite a few friends back that day.

Mark McGhee

Left Reading to take over at Leicester in 1994. Moved to Wolves a year later

April 30 1996 Reading 3 Wolves 0

Initially going back to Reading I felt very uncomfortable. Apart from anything else I practically live in the town, because my house is near Reading, and I was anxious.

On my first trip back there I was absolutely vilified. There's still a reaction when I go back these days and, even though it's more muted, that disturbs me. It's become easy going there now because I've done it so often, but I find the abuse unfair because I did a good job for the club.

Reading were bottom of the Second Division when I arrived and near the top of the First Division when I left. Gates rose from 3,000 to 13,000 and they had a team who finished second at the end of the season I went.

If there's one place where I feel there might be justified animosity towards me it's at Leicester, because I left after a year to go to Wolves. But in actual fact the reaction against me was very muted there. That said, when Leicester got into Europe while I was at Wolves there was a campaign from the Leicester fans and I got about 2,000 or 3,000 postcards from Madrid, where they were playing Atlético in a European game. We had a laugh at that.

Going back to Reading for the first time wasn't funny. I don't think the experience unsettled my players but it gave theirs an extra charge. The fans were more vociferous and vocal than Reading fans are ever capable of being, simply because I was there. So it helped their team in a sense.

My initial record against Reading was very poor. We continually lost important games to them. I remember one at the old Elm Park with Wolves, when we were going for automatic promotion. It was a few games from the end of the season and that setback cost us. We finished third behind Barnsley.

You could tell that me being there was an important factor. I have absolutely no doubt that the team Reading had that day weren't good enough to beat us. But given the atmosphere and the hostility towards me, they did.

Interviews by Jon Brodkin and Matt Scott

[Scarby]

I was at that Villa gane, as a 9 year old i wasnt quite sue why people were shouting judas at him, but my dad even to this tells me i started shouting with the hundreds of others as Little stepped of the villa coach at the old fortress player enterence!

[Hullfox]

I was at that Villa gane, as a 9 year old i wasnt quite sue why people were shouting judas at him, but my dad even to this tells me i started shouting with the hundreds of others as Little stepped of the villa coach at the old fortress player enterence!

60505[/snapback]

Brian Little is a hero to me. He's the man that got me to Wembley so often.

I bumped into him in a takeaway in Hull when he was up here and he was a lovely bloke. I forgive him for leaving the way he did (now) but I don't think I could ever forgive McGhee.

Strange that, no real logic but just gut instinct.