“We do like a soap opera down The Den,” Nick Hart, host of Achtung! Millwall podcast, tells The i Paper.
“This isn’t an easy decision,” Harris said in a letter to supporters, and to explain how he came to this shock conclusion mid-season we must go back 18 months, when he was actually in charge of Gillingham and Gary Rowett had the reins at Millwall.
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Read MoreA little over a week later, James Berylson succeeded his late father in the role of Millwall chairman, saying “I am fiercely determined and passionate about continuing his work and building on this foundation”.
“This will mark the start of a new era, one in which we will strive to fulfil Dad’s legacy,” James Berylson added, with a return to English football’s top tier the obvious goal.
With Rowett still in charge, this new era under Berylson junior heralded a vision that would seek to transform Millwall and bring them into the 21st century, an ambition that Hart says sought to mimic the Brentford model – “buy players cheap, polish them up, sell them on”.
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Read MoreEdwards attempted a new style of play at The Den. “Pass the ball around, play out from the back. The kind of Pep Guardiola style that everyone says is brilliant,” Hart says. “And we were doomed.”
At this point, not only had Harris already left his role at Gillingham, but he was in fact at Cambridge United, two months into an 18-month deal he had signed with the League One club.
Having had two stints as a player, then caretaker manager and then the permanent manager from 2015 to 2019, this time it was as head coach, and initially that subtle difference mattered little. What mattered was that Harris had returned to fulfil a promise and give the supporters their club back.
Neil Harris applauds the fans ahead of this farewell at The Den (Photo: PA)“My opinion is that he singlehandedly saved this club from relegation to League One by reverting to traditional Millwall virtues of grind and hard work,” Hart adds. “All hands to the pump.
A week after the season concluded, Millwall then appointed Steve Gallen as director of football.
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Read More“He has a proven track record of establishing a process and platform for identifying and developing talent at all stages during his years at QPR and Charlton, and his main focus at Millwall will be to use his experience to elevate all parts of football operations from the academy to the first-team.”
The Lions were subsequently active in the summer transfer window, with Spurs centre-back Japhet Tanganga among the arrivals, but what control Harris had over the names coming in was unclear.
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“I think Neil struggles with that,” Hart says. “Your traditional manager wants to play his best side, not lose his talent and hopefully climb the table. I think that’s what lies behind this sad situation, because Harris is a huge figure, probably the biggest in Millwall Football Club’s history.”
“I’m so proud to have represented this club as a player and a leader of the dressing room,” he said. “I know it’s the right time for change for all of us, and the club have been unbelievably supportive with that viewpoint.
“Look, when I took the job in February, it was a real debate whether I was taking the job. I ultimately took the job because I promised the late John Berylson that I’d come back in the hour of need. I really wanted to work with Jimmy, with his son, and it’s been an absolute privilege to have served both of them and have a brilliant relationship with both.”
For context, this came on the weekend after the club had just lost 1-0 at Coventry, a week after a disappointing draw at Oxford United.
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Read More“So just a reminder to people, the thickos, that when you take the three best players out of the team that this is Millwall Football Club.”
Either way, it sped up his departure, which though earlier than expected has clearly not ended in utter hostility, given he is easing the transition by overseeing the Boro match too.
“Millwall! I just have to cross the bridge from my house… Millwall,” Mourinho said, and this much is true: Jose Mourinho would be a popular choice among The Den faithful, Jose Mourinho at Millwall would be box-office and Jose Mourinho is not going to Millwall.
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Read MoreIt ties in with Millwall’s ambitions. Mark Robins, sacked by Coventry City last month, would be an obvious choice were they looking to revert to the old ways, but Bloomfield is 40, making him malleable and in the infancy of his managerial career.
Bloomfield’s approach has proven effective, given Wycombe are 13th for passes, sixth for shots in League One, and yet top for goals in the third tier with 39.
Such numbers and standings are always going to turn heads, and though in a strong position to earn promotion with Wycombe, Bloomfield could soon take the fast track to the Championship himself.
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