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 Scot most recently managed the Potters, having taken over in August 2022, but was made redundant 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 finished this month.
Neil was in the stands at the CBS Arena on Sunday, watching his new team battle to a goalless draw against Frank Lampard’s Coventry City.
This result keeps them in 13th place in the ranking.
Millwall 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 league in terms of results and developing young talent, as well as many other attributes which we are confident will take us forward as a club,” Gallen said. the club website.
Neil’s first match in charge of Millwall will be at home to Oxford United on January 1.
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 spell in charge of the club, announced he would leave early in December.
Since then, they have finished the play-offs in impressive fashion continuing Blackburn Rovers’ six-game winning run before being beaten 2-1 by Norwich on Boxing Day.
Neil takes over a mid-table club who have won just once in their last nine league games.
After overseeing promotion to the Premier League through the play-offs with Norwich almost 10 years ago, he left the Canaries in March 2017 following their return to the second division.
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 deal in 2022 and won promotion to League One through the play-offs soon after, but left to join Stoke at the start of the following season.
He has been out of management for more than a year since his 16-month stay at Stoke ended at the start of December 2023, with the Potters 20th in the table.
Martin Canning, who worked alongside Neil at Stoke and Sunderland, has also moved to south-east London as assistant head coach.
Neil compared the challenge he faces at Millwall to the job he first took on at Deepdale in the summer of 2017.
“It was a great opportunity for me,” Neil said on his arrival at Millwall.
“I think it’s very similar to when I came to Preston, in a good environment.
“It’s not like there were any huge problems. The team wasn’t struggling and I had to go out there and develop a style of play, maybe bring through some of the younger players . So I see this as a very similar project to the one I did there.”
