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Duncan Edwards

Danny Mills, are we harsh or fair?

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When I read that Danny Mills had given Stuart Pearce a bit of a going over in the press, my initial reaction was "Who the hell is Danny Mills to criticise Psycho?!?" After all, Pearce is a heart-on-his-sleeve, passionate, chest-pounding Three Lions hero. Who will ever forget him being so emotionally charged when he buried those penalties in Euro 96? The weight of six years of a hurt he shared with a nation lifted from his shoulders.

We felt it with him. I can''t believe that there was an England fan anywhere that wasn''t delighted for him. England fans identified with him; essentially a white-van-man that had made it. A punk-loving electrician from the boroughs of London who made it to the top and Captained his country.

So how dare Mills speak so bluntly about him?

The thing with Mills is that he has no great affinity with Canaries fans and my view is probably clouded by that fact. For a lad who went to Sprowston High grew up in the suburbs and came through our youth system, he doesn''t seem particularly enamoured with his local club. He has never shied away from sticking the boot into the Canaries in his punditry and openly favoured Leeds over us in one televised game.

But while that rankles, and it does, perhaps it isn''t surprising. Yes, we gave him his first bite of the cherry but there can be little doubt that he went on to better himself in his spells at Leeds, Middlesbrough and Manchester City. Mills went on to play on a higher stage than Norwich managed for another 6 or 7 years, yet when we let him go he was being kept out of the side by Daryl Sutch. Now, Daryl was a great servant and, penalties aside, was a decent pro but he never got a sniff of senior international recognition like Mills.

Maybe there is the point. Mills did get 19 England caps, he was first choice right-back at the 2002 World Cup and performed with credit. Mills played in the Champions League too, he reached the highest level of his profession. Yet when Canaries fans are asked about our Youth products and who rates as the best of them, Mills would barely get a mention.

Bellamy, Eadie, Sutton and Fox roll off the tongue. Dale Gordon, Keith O''Neill, Rob Green and probably even Chris Martin would likely be forthcoming before anyone mentioned our Danny.

He wasn''t as exciting as most of them and was certainly more abrasive than most; there are plenty of Norwich folk of my generation with stories about Mills around the nightclubs of the time but in fairness, he wasn''t alone in that respect. O''Neill was regularly seen out and about, Bellamy was like a mini-tornado for most of his career and the ''Bostik Boys'', Sutton and Fox, weren''t exactly strangers to controversy.

So while we feel shortchanged by his apparent disregard for his first club, maybe he feels like the club and its fans haven''t given him a fair crack either. If he felt that he was a better player than Daryl Sutch, he was ultimately proved right and probably felt aggrieved that Sutch was playing at his expense.

Subsequently, Sutch made over 300 appearances for the Canaries and finds himself in the Hall of Fame while fellow Youth product Mills has a decent collection of England headwear and is one of only a handful (I genuinely have no idea how many but it''s not many..) to come through our Academy and play at a World Cup. No recognition for Danny though.

He isn''t the easiest to ''like'' and his comments over the years about Norwich will have done little to enhance that relationship. It''s unlikely that anyone will ever start a campaign to see him inducted into the Hall of Fame; I''d much rather see Trevor Hockey in there for instance.

However, for a lad to go from Sprowston High School to playing for his country on the World''s biggest stage is some journey and irrespective of how tainted your view or how unpalatable your memories of him are, that is deserving of respect even if it''s grudging.

If Mills thought he deserved more of a chance at City, he''s probably right. If he thought he was a better player than Daryl Sutch, he was right. When he said that despite beating Spurs that we had problems, as much as I hate to admit it, he was probably right - we got relegated after all.

So when he says that Stuart Pearce is a crap coach, having played under him and having experienced his methods in comparison to some top managers; he''s probably right.

I doubt we''ll ever ''like'' him. I''m not suggesting that anybody does but as a local boy made good, perhaps we should cut him a bit more slack and display a little bit of pride that one of ours made it. He certainly has more right to criticise Pearce than most.

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Stuart Pearce was never a great player. He was alright but not a big talent. And his management has never been too impressive either. What Danny Mills has said doesn''t surprise me because they were my gut feelings of Pearce''s ability anyway.

 

But Danny Mills always comes across like a miserable git. I think sometimes he''s negative for the sake of it, to stick the knife in a bit and then dresses it up as honesty.

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The funny thing was Danny Mills wasn''t that great at Norwich so got the chances he deserved at the time!

Had a decent career through hard work and preserverance more than ability and says what he thinks but by all accounts was not an easy person to get on with even in the early days!

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[quote user="GJP"]

Stuart Pearce was never a great player. He was alright but not a big talent. And his management has never been too impressive either. What Danny Mills has said doesn''t surprise me because they were my gut feelings of Pearce''s ability anyway.

 

But Danny Mills always comes across like a miserable git. I think sometimes he''s negative for the sake of it, to stick the knife in a bit and then dresses it up as honesty.

[/quote]preciselyand the OP does read, at the beginning, like some sort of ''Rippin Yarns'' spoof

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Mills was a right back, and that''s not the most glamorous of positions, so that may explain why he isn''t the first name you would think of.

 

I think he is just trying to justify his job. (btw , what exactly got him onto that Football Panel with the likes of Hoddle etc?)

Of course, Danny, if you decided to get out of your chair and put yourself into a Manager''s position, then a fair balanced debate could take place................

 

Everyone''s a critic

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The thing that annoys me most about Danny Mills is the amount of times he sighs before talking. It''s always "uhh...hmm, you''know, I just don''t think.....". I also agree with a previous poster, that I don''t really see what benefit he brings to these television and radio shows. They often mention that he went to the 2002 World Cup - well funnily enough a few hundred players also went to that competition!!

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Mills is certainly entitled to his opinion, but seems like the kind of guy who will harbour long-term grudges and stick the knife in at any possible opportunity.

I''m sure most ex-pro pundits have had similar experiences, but most are able to deal with things a bit more professionally. Oh, and he has his cushy punditry job funded by the taxpayer...

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when the bbc get fed up with him, he''s a prime candidate for Talk Sport; deliberately controversial to whip up a reaction from the listeners and watchers. I''m very surprised he''s made it onto the bbc though, he hardly had a stunning football career. Not sure what makes him more of an expert than many other ex-players. Iwan for example always speaks well - and I''m not talking about his Evening news column.

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Obviously there was a bit of history to that comment. No idea what it was.

 

That Mills and Pearce were/are both involved with the England coaching set up is an indictment on the FA''s system and yet another reason why will won''t win anything at International level.

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Listened to him on 606 on Saturday - awful pundit compare him to Savage who at least seems to be enjoying himself.

Mills was the best of a very bad bunch at the time and if he was a left back at the time of Pearce would not have won any caps.

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But he wasn''t a left back, he was a right back and Gary Neville being injured shouldn''t detract from the fact that he played at the highest level.

As for being the best of a bad bunch, well, he still got to play in a World Cup quarter final against Brazil. I reckon most kids at Sprowston High now would take that as the peak of their football career..?

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Really good opening post , you certainly have a way with words

I don''t particularly like Danny Mills, always thought he came over as a bit arrogant but he''s entitled to his opinion and as you say he''s one of us or used to be and has had a decent career so maybe we should cut him a bit of slack.

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Why come out with all this now? Why not write a best selling autobiography and reveal all?

Was Mills worried about his pundit profile, with the likes of (G)Neville''s/Henry/Savage etc improving, and he felt he had to say ''something''?

Pearce said at the weekend, he was sorry (back in the day) for playing Micah Richards ahead of Mills. Mills, in reply, said that Pearce had asked him to play, but after 6 months out, and only 3 days training that he didn''t feel he could.

So, after all this time, and with Pearce, seemingly, at the most pressure he''s been under, Mills decides the World needs to know his little gem. Sekonda  couldn''t have done it better.

Did Mills really think that the Forest Board would suddenly hold an emergency meeting to discuss this revelation?

Mills was probably banking on red hot favourites Derby backing his argument up..................  

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Mills was a poor man''s Carl Bradshaw and has massively overachieved both on and off the pitch, with his inability to trap a bag of sand and his face designed solely for radio.

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I would have thought the point about Danny Mills (or any pundit) was not why he might be saying something but whether it was true or not. I haven''t seen these latest comments, but several weeks ago on the BBC minute by minute he said Pearce was a manger who came in like a tornado with lots of passion, and early results were good. But then his lack of tactical acumen got exploited by opposing managers and results fell away. Which is just what has happened at Forest this season, unless the win at Derby heralds a renaissance.

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It might well be the truth (tbc) but WHY say it, and why NOW? Cheap pathetic point scoring in my eyes. He''s waited a LONG time to say it, and now Pearce has been under pressure, Mills thought now would be good............

 

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[quote user="Crabbycanary3"]

It might well be the truth (tbc) but WHY say it, and why NOW? Cheap pathetic point scoring in my eyes. He''s waited a LONG time to say it, and now Pearce has been under pressure, Mills thought now would be good............

 

[/quote]Mills seems to have been saying this for a while, rather than just recently. But more broadly, it has been  a few years for me now, but the standard of TV punditry in England was appallingly low and anodyne, mainly because the pundits all knew the players and managers on whom they were commenting and so would never say  anything critical about them. They might attack a team''s performance or tactics but shied away from anything personal. About the harshest remark you would get on an individual was on the lines of "he will be disappointed with that." So what if Pearce is under pressure? It is not the job of a pundit to take that into account. Pundits are meant to tell the truth as they see it.

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If he''s been saying the same thing for a while, then that is worse!!

 

Like I said, nothing wrong with the truth, but it smacks of a bitter and twisted individual, rather than considered ''punditry''.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"]

 Pundits are meant to tell the truth as they see it.

[/quote]
Bit off topic but that''s why I prefer Eadie or Rusty on canary call rather than Adrian Forbes or Bryan Gunn

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I use Danny Mills as a coaching example.

We used to train together for a bit and I was amazed how technically poor he was. He would avoid the circle of kept ups and tricks we would do to warm up before training because he couldn''t do it....

Yet he was only one of two that I knew would definitely make it to the higher levels of football from Norwich (the other was Bellamy).

Danny wasn''t a natural footballer, he was hardly a footballer at all to my competitive eyes at the time bring alongside him, but nothing - nothing - was going to stop him. He was always apart, not really liked, not talented in any way compared to the rest of us, but he was going to charge through any wall put in front of him.

I''m not at all sure he''d get far if he was starting again now, his technical limitations were too great, but whilst never wanting to be like him or trade any ability with him, I had a respect for his iron will and drive.

His was the clearest indication that talent alone is not nearly enough, but hard work, drive and will might just be...

Parma

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I think the main problem here is that Mills is just a poor mans Roy Keane.He loves controversy, he has flirted with it his entire career. He was a solid right back, but not technically all that good but was incredibly committed. He''s always had carried a reputation of a bit of a strange mentality and several rumours of bust ups have followed him around.I actually used to work with someone who used to coach him in a youth team outside of NCFC and said that he constantly needed kicking up the arse and reminding to be focused. I guess that sometimes that comes with that streak of arrogance that some successful players have.However, as a pundit on football, I have very little time for him. I find him overly critical as if he is trying to pinch a bit of Savage''s approach, but with far less charisma.Also, when you look at his actual career - 321 appearances scoring 7 times over a 13 year career. Around half of those were for Norwich (66) and Leeds (101). 10 of his 19 England appearances came in 2002.He might be right in his opinion''s on Pearce as a manager but I would rather have a player like Pearce than Mills in any side.As for British footy commentary - I quite liked Le Saux but supposedly the beeb didn''t like him as he explained coaching methods and how a player was making an error rather than just outright criticising them.

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