“We’ve got a real clear vision” – Alex Neil says Millwall project differs from clubs he led to promotion.

ALEX Neil has outlined why moving Millwall up the league is a longer-term undertaking than his past promotion bids.

Neil has already managed three teams to promotion: Hamilton Athletic to the Scottish Championship in 2014, Norwich City to the Premier League via the play-offs in 2015, and Sunderland to the Championship through the play-offs in 2022.

The Scot nearly led Millwall to the play-offs in his first season as Lions manager, but the team finished two points outside the top six after a final-day 3-1 loss at second-placed Burnley. Neil explained why expectations differed at prior clubs. “I think everything’s different,” Neil replied. “What I mean is that I believe some of the clubs I’ve attended were really plain. We expect to be promoted this season. If we do not receive a promotion, we have failed.“But I think when that’s the case, provided I’m looking at the squad and thinking, yeah, this squad should be promoted this year, there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t, our budget is in the top two or three in the league, we’ve got players that are beyond the level and should be playing at a higher level consistently. That was probably the case when I moved to Norwich. That was the case, certainly, when I moved to Sunderland in terms of where they were at the time. It was really straightforward for me. My aim is to get us promoted this year. If I don’t do it, I haven’t done my job well enough.”Whereas, say, a Preston is more of a longer-term build in the sense that you need to build season after season in order to improve. There, any money you make should be reinvested to help the team develop. In that regard, I believe this initiative is somewhat similar to previous one. I think we have a very clear vision of how we’re going to try to do that, and I think last year was a terrific place to start.”

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