Millwall legend Neil Harris agreed to an emotional return last year, following an SOS call from the Championship outfit, who have gone from strength to strength after avoiding relegation
Millwall legend Neil Harris agreed to an emotional return last year, following an SOS call from the Championship outfit, who have gone from strength to strength after avoiding relegation Millwall legend Neil Harris agreed to an emotional return last year, following an SOS call from the Championship outfit, who have gone from strength to strength after avoiding relegation
If any Millwall fan was ever asked to pick a manager to win a one-off game at The Den, Neil Harris would be the overwhelming choice.
So it was only logical that the club turned to the man who has been coined ‘Mr Millwall’ when they were haunted by the threat of relegation towards the end of last season.
When it comes to club royalty, Harris is right up there – as both a player and a manager. You’d be hard pressed to find a significant moment or accomplishment in Millwall’s recent history that wasn’t affiliated with him in some way.
Few can channel the chaos generated by the 15,000 people inside The Den every other weekend. But Harris can. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that, in the end, he kept Millwall up at a canter last year after riding in on a white horse. And listening to him speak a few months on, it feels almost silly to think such a feat was ever in doubt.
“I think that Southampton game – my first game back – was right up there as one of my best moments, in a really random way,” Harris tells Mirror Football from his office at the club’s Calmont Road training base.
“That’s in my top 10 – if not top five moments – as a Millwall man. I’ve had some brilliant days as a player and the manager – I’ve been really fortunate in that respect – but that day was really special; the atmosphere in St Mary’s was something special.
“I walked off and I knew then we were going to be alright.”
As the club’s all-time record goalscorer, Harris had already secured his place on the pantheon of Millwall greats, long before he was lured back to South London to perform a Houdini-esque rescue act.
Harris’ previous tenure included promotion to the Championship and a memorable crack at following that up with a golden ticket to the Premier League the year after.
He would resign (after some debate with the Millwall board) in October 2019. But a promise to Millwall’s late chairman, John Berylson, that he would return in the club’s hour of need, ensured his destiny would continue to be entwined with that of the club he has become synonymous with over the past 20 years.
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It says everything about Harris’ character that he has referenced on record – on more than one occasion – the work done by his predecessors during his fruitful second spell.
Gary Rowett – who replaced Harris at the helm in 2019 – helped stabilise the Lions in the Championship. Joe Edwards’ brief tenure may not have yielded positive results but did prove their was a desire at the club for evolution. It was Harris, though, who set the club on their current trajectory with the work he did first time around.
“In different ways, they all showed us the way forward; be it the attributes to try and evolve our stuff or more. I see my job as number four on that list [of managers] to continue that pathway so that when number five and six take over, we’re in a much better place as a football club.”
Progress on the pitch has already been significant across the nine-month spell Harris has overseen. Only Leeds (50) have accrued more than the 49 points Millwall have banked since Harris’ return. He has won half of his 30 league games.
The phenomenal work undertaken by Harris has largely gone unappreciated outside the Millwall bubble. Much like the club’s infamous anthem, though, he doesn’t care.
“We’ve achieved a lot over the last nine months, but I genuinely believe there’s more to come from us. My job is to try and win games of football. You don’t have to just be an ex-Millwall player to be able to play a way the Millwall fans identify with, but you have to have an understanding of what that looks like.
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“I believe we can evolve as well, into a better version of ourselves. But that does take time and it takes transfer windows.”
Millwall are, in many ways, an antithesis to the average Championship team. There’s no chance of a Neil Harris team ever racking up possession numbers for the sake of it, but misconceptions over the club’s style of play are lazy. They have evolved since Harris’ first tenure and their stats in the key attacking metrics rank among the highest in the division.
A friend who watched the recent 1-0 win over promotion favourites Burnley, remarked that he had ‘never seen a team dominate without the ball like this’.
“Do I get enough credit? Do we get enough credit as a football club? We don’t play the sexiest style of football, I understand that. But my job as a Millwall manager is not driven by possession stats. It’s about getting results.
“My players play with so much discipline and desire. Their structure and organisation…they take on so much information [and carry it out] that if it was done by a foreign team, foreign coach, I’m sure they’d get a lot more credit.
“I did something I’ve never done before after the Leeds game at The Den. I stood on the pitch by the tunnel and I applauded my players off, because they’d beat Leeds at home off the back of the Burnley win in the space of 72 hours. I was in awe of my players.”
The good times may be rolling but credit is a currency few managers can bank on for long, regardless of status. Harris is no different. As a staunch England fan, who has travelled to watch his country regularly, Gareth Southgate‘s situation resonates with him.
Despite his fine record at major tournaments, the former England manager was chastised following a subpar start to the European Championship finals in the summer.
“Gareth is a genius. We don’t start well at the Euros, so the fans say sack him halfway through the tournament. We lose a month later [in the final before leaving] and it’s all, ‘Didn’t he do well for us, how brilliant’. I just look at that and think that is the life of a football manager. And do you know what, I’m so at peace with it now.”
Harris felt the club needed realigning when he returned in February, and has spent the last nine months rebuilding that connection between the terraces and the pitch.
He points out that the last significantly disappointing result Millwall endured, was last season’s demoralising loss at Huddersfield, who eventually succumbed to the drop.
As 2024 draws to a close, Millwall are the form team in the division, amid a seven-match unbeaten run. Promotion favourites Burnley and Leeds have already been slain at The Den this month to put the rest of the division on notice.
“I’m just pleased for the football club. I’m pleased that me and my staff are doing our jobs. I’m genuinely pleased for the punters that pay their money to come and watch their team and actually enjoy watching them.
“I think it’s a great position for a Millwall fan to be in at the moment; to enjoy watching their team, but also know when they turn up on a Saturday afternoon exactly what they’re going to get.”
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Harris ranks the current culture as one of the best he’s seen in all his years at the club, be that as a player or manager.
It’s easy to draw comparisons between this campaign and the 2017-18 season, where Millwall came so close to breaking their Premier League duck, after a 17-game unbeaten run put them on the cusp of a play-off place.
It would have only felt too right for Harris, with his affiliation with the club, to take them to the promised land for the first time back then. Nothing has changed on that front.
Naturally, given the success of the past nine months, thoughts turn to what’s next. He is halfway through the 18-month contract he signed earlier this year and it remains to be seen what the future holds.
He was unsure he would ever return to management before the people and project at Cambridge helped him rediscover his spark for the game. Millwall, though, have undoubtedly been the chief beneficiaries.
“I’m very proud of the job I’ve done and the fact I got it right in deciding to come back in February, for the right reasons as well. When I left originally it was the right time: I had to go away and do a lot of learning, I had to go away and develop as a manager and as a person away from Millwall.”
Harris speaks of “starting” a process for James Berylson, who is seeking to take the club forward with a new model centred on investing and developing in youth.
Whatever the future holds, Harris’ legend has only grown. And if the fairytale ending, that eluded him back in 2018, comes to fruition this time around, he would surely elevate himself above all others in the Millwall stratosphere.
“I knew coming back when I was offered with the job in February – on the back of a sleepless night – I knew I’d be a better man for coming back and that I’d be better at my job the second time. Proving it to the doubters is different.
“I’d like to think I’ve shown that.”
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