By BBC (Sports) | Created at 2024-12-30 11:07:55 | Updated at 2025-01-06 11:15:17
1 week ago
Millwall have appointed former Preston North End, Sunderland and Stoke City boss Alex Neil as head coach on a "long-term" contract.
The 43-year-old most recently managed the Potters, having taken over in August 2022, but was sacked just over 12 months ago.
Neil, who won promotion from the Championship as manager of Norwich City in 2015, takes over from Neil Harris whose second stint with the Lions ended this month.
Neil was in the stands in the CBS Arena on Sunday, watching his new side battle to a goalless draw with Frank Lampard's Coventry City.
The result kept them 13th in the table.
Millwall's director of football Steve Gallen said Neil was a head coach with "proven methods" and "exciting ideas".
"Ultimately, Alex has an excellent track record in the Championship for results and development of young talent, as well as many other attributes that we feel confident will drive us forward as a club," Gallen told the club website, external.
The Lions were 11th in the Championship and had not won in their previous four games when Harris, who returned in February for a second stint in charge of the club, announced he would leave earlier in December.
Since then they impressively ended play-off chasing Blackburn Rovers' six-game winning run before being defeated 2-1 by Norwich on Boxing Day.
Neil takes over a mid-table club that has won just once in their past nine Championship games.
Having overseen promotion to the Premier League through the play-offs with Norwich almost 10 years ago, he left the Canaries in March 2017 after they returned to the second tier.
Later that year he took over at Preston, where he spent four years, before being sacked with the club 16th in the Championship at the time.
He joined the Black Cats on a short-term contract in 2022 and won promotion from League One through the play-offs shortly after, but left to join Stoke early the following season.
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