News :Sir Alan finds a new Margaret: Football's first lady Karren Brady is glamorous new Apprentice star

You're hired: Karren Brady is Lord Sugar's new 'ears and eyes' on The Apprentice

It is one of the most demanding jobs in television – being one half of Lord Sugar's 'eyes and ears' to help him choose a new Apprentice.

Now the task of reporting back to one of the most exacting bosses in Britain has been handed t! o glamorous businesswoman Karren Brady.

The chief executive of Birmingham City Football Club replaces lawyer Margaret Mountford as Lord Sugar's right-hand woman, helping him to assess the 16 candidates for the next series of the hit BBC1 show.

Ms Mountford, 56, quit at the end of the last series to pursue a PhD in papyrology – which as every good apprentice should know is the study of ancient literature – leaving Lord Sugar to hunt for someone to accompany public relations executive Nick Hewer as the aides who monitor candidates during their tasks.

Ms Brady, 40, dubbed the 'First Lady of Football', saw off competition from potential replacements including Michelle Mone, the woman behind the Ultimo bra company, and entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox.

In March 2007, Ms Brady appeared as a celebrity contestant on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice as leader of the women's team and won the show, raising £776,000 for charity.

A year later she was asked by Lord Sugar – then plain Sir Alan – to become part of his panel to interview the final five candidates.

She offered a job to the show's runner-up that year, Claire Young, and interviewed candidates again for this year's series.

Ms Brady may be well placed to offer candidates advice on whether to carry on calling the show's star 'SrAlan' or whether to refer to him as Lord Sugar, the title he was given by Gordon Brown when he became the Government's business tsar in June this year.

Ms Brady has known Lord Sugar for 16 years through football. He was chairman of Tottenham Hotspur for ten years until 2001, while Ms Brady becam! e managing director of Birmingham City in 1993, aged 23.

She later married player Paul Peschisolido and they have two children, Sophia, 13, and ten-year-old Paolo.

Quitting: Margaret Mountford with Lord Sugar

Ms Brady has been under a cloud for the past year after she and Birmingham City owner David Sullivan were arrested as part of a widespread investigation into allegations of football corruption.

Earlier this month, officers ann-ounced no action would be taken against them. Now the club is set to be taken over by Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung, reportedly for £81million.

Last night, she told The Mail on Sunday: 'I am thrilled to be involved, having worked with Alan for 16 years. It's great to extend our relationship to the programme.'

Her predecessor Ms Mountford and Mr Hewer, 64, have become almost as important to the show as Lord Sugar.

Ms Mountford seldom commented directly on the performance of the candidates, making her feelings clear with a raised eyebrow or roll of the eye.

But when a Jewish candidate, studying classics at Edinburgh University, failed to understand the meaning of 'kosher', she said witheringly: 'Edinburgh isn't what it used to be.'

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