Welcome back to this retro Championship Manager mini-series. For the past seven months or so, I have been managing Millwall on Championship Manager 00/01, with the challenge of leading them to English, European and world domination within just 10 seasons.
This is the second part of the trilogy. After celebrating two promotions in three seasons, can the Lions now establish themselves in the Premiership? And how long will it take for them to add some major silverware to the trophy cabinet?
PHASE 2: CONQUER ENGLAND
SEASON 4: 2003/2004
The likes of Simon Charlton, David Tuttle and Gavin Strachan did not join us in the Premiership, but a mixed bag of new faces did. Greek goalkeeper Dionisis Chiotis was an excellent (if somewhat inconsistent) shotstopper who cost us £2.5million. Ibrahim Ates was even more of a bargain at £1million – becoming undroppable at right-back for the next seven years.
But not all our summer signings were successes. Louis Saha was simply too injury-prone and erratic to be an effective strike partner for Beattie.
And despite beating Coventry away and Aston Villa at home in our opening two Premiership games, our defence was an utter shambles. Veteran centre-back (and Lions old boy) Kenny Cunningham lasted just seven matches before a 3-1 home defeat against QPR led me to take the cruellest action possible – releasing him on a free transfer to Tottenham.
Cunningham was replaced with Philippe Mèxes, who had been criminally underused by Auxerre and was available for £3.3million. The young sweeper’s arrival led me to switch tactics to a 3-5-2, which pulled us clear of relegation danger – and even inspired a 4-0 thrashing of Wet Sham.
With survival wrapped up, surely we would now kick on and get a top-half finish?
It was a truly bizarre first season in the Premiership – particularly at The Den, where we lost 11 of our 19 home matches!
But that wasn’t the big story. Let’s talk about the FA Cup.
After an early scare against Wolves in Round 3, and an equally unconvincing win over Stan Collymore’s Cambridge United in Round 4, we nearly came a cropper against Chelsea. Star midfielder Darren Eadie‘s 90th-minute equaliser (after Ates was sent off) took us to a replay at The Den, where a James Beattie masterclass saw us through to the Quarter Finals. Eadie AND Beattie then saved us from a 2-0 deficit at Newcastle, before another Beattie brace won the replay.
Awaiting us in the Semi Finals were the eventual Premiership champions… Middlesbrough (yes, really). Bryan Robson fielded a much more defensive 5-3-2 than us, and we simply could not break their firewall down. The best we could hope for after two goalless hours was a penalty shoot-out…
…where we held our nerves, and two Boro boys fluffed their lines! Just like in real-life, Millwall would go to the 2004 FA Cup Final to take on a north-western powerhouse wearing red: Liverpool.
And that was where Keith Dunne truly came of age. At barely 19 years old, the Irish wonderkid banged in not one but TWO long-range screamers to bring the FA Cup – and European football – to The Den for the very first time!
SEASON 5: 2004/2005
Chiotis, Eadie, Mèxes, Steve Howey… to be honest, I was getting a little bored of signing the same old Championship Manager wonderkids. Anyway, here’s Tonton Zola Moukoko.
Tonton had become available at the end of his Derby contract, after an outstanding season in Division 1. The silky Swede would score 19 goals in his first campaign at Millwall – often playing as either an attacking midfielder or as the number 9.
Our other big buy was £4million defensive midfielder Timmy Simons, who was set to replace Olivier Dacourt after we sold him to Rennes for £3.7million. Unfortunately, Simons’ performances were abysmal, and the infamous Belgian was gone within a year.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old John Atkinson established himself as a first-team regular, thanks to his outstanding passing ability and his deadliness from penalties. Sadly, he would be the last academy product to break through for a while.
Though Middlesbrough outclassed us in the Charity Shield, we enjoyed a solid debut run in the UEFA Cup. After swatting Hapoel Haifa aside and then battling past Slovan Liberec, Tonton secured us a famous 2-1 win over the mighty AC Milan. Alas, the Rossoneri outclassed us 3-0 at the San Siro – halting our charge at Round 3.
Back in the Premiership, we were making decent progress. We were much tougher to beat at home, but ironically were now struggling on the road. Despite only losing four away league games, we also only won three – with 12 draws! There was also some discontent within the squad, with Dunne having a strop after I refused to let him join Manchester United.
Nonetheless, our heavy scoring meant we were pushing for the Champions League places all the way to the very end. If we could beat Ipswich at home on the final day, we would finish 4th and book a ticket to Europe’s top table.
And we pulled it off – a 2-0 win sealing the deal. Though Arsenal had knocked us out of both domestic cups (including beating us 1-0 in our second consecutive FA Cup Final), we had proven that we were the best team in London.
Millwall had come a long way in just five years. Midfield icons Lucas Neill and Paul Ifill were still going strong in the Premiership, and even Tony Warner had got his place back in goal after Chiotis made a few too many errors.
Eifion Jones was the only other survivor from my first season and was now a true defensive rock. Mind you, his centre-back partner – captain Tony Vaughan – had hit a rough patch and got quite upset after being warned about his poor performances.
Yep. We were all one big happy family here at The Den.
SEASON 6: 2005/2006
Okay… so this was a weird ol’ season. Before our first tilt at the Champions League, I improved our defence by bringing in young Rangers centre-half Alan Hendry, who would soon become a solid regular starter. Teenage goalkeeper Tom Rantanen took a little longer to break through, though he would develop into a fine understudy (and rival) to Chiotis.
I also flogged Vaughan to Brentford after a stupid pre-season red card made me lose all patience with him. Philippe Mèxes took over the captaincy, while I brought in another experienced centre-back from Newcastle. I really thought Darren Moore would be the dependable stopper we needed…
…and then this happened. We were just eight minutes away from beating AIK in our first Champions League qualifier at The Den (now expanded to over 32,000 seats) when Moore gave away a very clumsy penalty. The Swedes equalised…
…before beating us in a penalty shoot-out and relegating us to the UEFA Cup. Dazza’s Millwall career never recovered. By December, he was playing in the Portuguese second division.
Our UEFA Cup campaign started promisingly, comfortably beating a Lithuanian club that doesn’t exist anymore. Then we got to play Danish minnows Silkeborg… and this is where I introduce you to every Championship Manager’s favourite opponent: the super-keeper.
Yes, this bang-average Polish goalkeeper somehow produced TWO ‘man of the match’ performances to send us crashing out of the UEFA Cup. Beattie could not hit a barn door.
Our league campaign quickly fell apart, and we were left stalling in mid-table (even if we did have games in hand). Beattie and Tonton were struggling so badly to convert chances that I gave Leicester £10million for Nicolas Anelka.
That was a big mistake. Anelka being ‘Le Sulk’, he slapped in a transfer request as soon as I criticised him for one bad performance. After scoring just one goal in 10 matches, he was sent back to Leicester for a fraction of what we paid for him.
Meanwhile, my beloved Arsenal were also having a rough time, and they had just sacked George Graham after his second coming as manager turned sour. When the Gunners offered me the chance to take over at Highbury, I was very tempted to take it…
…but no. I had unfinished business at Millwall. Arsenal took the rejection so well that they came grovelling back to Graham for a THIRD time. Suckers.
Having renewed my commitment to Millwall, I decided it was high time for a refresh. Attacking midfielders Eadie, Ifill and Modou Jallow were all sold, as we raided Derby again to sign Gordon Strachan’s OTHER son – Craig Strachan.
I finally got my hands on my dream left-back Michael Gray – two-and-a-half years after he turned us down to join Tottenham. Tough-tackling ball-winner Marc-Vivien Foé (RIP) was another long-term target who immediately made us more defensively stable. Oh yes, and we also brought in Robbie Fowler to sniff around for those goals.
That fantastic four turned our fortunes around… but it wasn’t until I switched back to a narrow 4-1-3-2 that we REALLY started to cook again. Finishing the season on a six-match winning run, we shot up from 7th place to 3rd.
That gave us another crack at the Champions League. This time, we were determined not to let it slip.
SEASON 7: 2006/2007
You can’t have too many Swedes on CM, can you? Attacking midfielder Mattias Jönsson might have been getting on a bit, but he was a truly magnificent addition to the Millwall squad… at least in his first season with us. 22 goal contributions wasn’t a bad haul, all told.
I also looked for a big, beefy centre-forward to link up with a faster poacher. With his perfect 20s in Finishing, Heading and Jumping, and plenty of strength, Alessio Goisis fitted the bill perfectly. I still can’t believe Lecce allowed his contract to run out after sticking him on the bench for five years.
There was no faffing in the Champions League qualifiers this time around. Anderlecht were swept aside as we booked our place in the first group stage, where we faced Barcelona, Aris and IFK Göteborg – getting one win and one defeat against each of them. No prizes for guessing which result pleased me the most.
We then came through an even trickier second group – featuring AC Milan, Real Sociedad and Bayern München – to book our place in the Quarter Finals against 2004 champions Ajax. Unfortunately, that was where our fairytale run would come to an end.
This was a tale of two goalies. Despite having his best season yet, Chiotis was an utter Greek tragedy in Amsterdam… while Ajax’s goalkeeper Dida was unbeatable at The Den. These AI super-goalies were starting to annoy me.
That second leg was one of only TWO home defeats we suffered all season (the other was against Göteborg, of all teams). Domestically, we were absolutely unstoppable – especially on our own turf.
Dunne had finally stopped sulking and was having the most productive season of his young career. Craig Strachan was producing assists out of thin air, while Goisis and a rejuvenated Beattie notched up 55 goals between them. As soon as we hit the top of the table in November, it seemed inevitable that this would be the season in which we won the big one.
And so we did – silencing the Geordie Army for our first League Cup victory!
Then, three weeks later, we demolished Preston 5-1 at Deepdale – Beattie getting a hat-trick before Fowler and Goisis killed David Moyes’ boys off. That win secured us an even greater prize.
The best team in London were now the best team in England – storming to the Premiership title by a record 20 points from Kenny Dalglish’s Sunderland (lmao).
Our success had been built on a rather decent home record. Remember three seasons ago, when we lost 11 home games on our Premiership debut? Well…
Yeah. In all my years of playing CM/FM, I have never before completed a season in which we won EVERY home league game. We did have a couple of scares along the way – needing a 90th-minute Goisis winner against newly-promoted Wycombe, before Jönsson got us past a stubborn Arsenal.
Having already achieved perfection on our own ground, where on Earth would we go from here?
Seven seasons down, three to go. Can Millwall convert their domestic dominance into continental and global glory? Tune in next time for the final chapter!
Fuller FM 