You would be forgiven for thinking Teddy Sheringham’s best times in football were at Manchester United where he won the Treble. Or perhaps it was playing for England in front of a packed Wembley at Euro 96. Or even at Tottenham where he won the Premier League golden boot.
You would be wrong.
‘People ask my best time in football and instinctively expect me to say Man United. But lifewise my favourite was Millwall,’ says Treble-winner Sheringham, whose celebrated career also took him to Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, West Ham and England at Euro 96.
‘They ask who I keep in touch with, wanting to hear Gary Neville or Paul Scholes. Nah, it’s Jimmy Carter, Alan McLeary, Brian Horne, Tony Cascarino, my old Millwall team-mates. That’s what the club means to us.’
Sheringham, fit and tanned, met up again with Carter and McLeary this week to reminisce about being the only Millwall team in their history to play in the top division, between 1988 and 1990.
Gary Rowett’s class of 2023 can emulate them this season with victory against Blackburn tomorrow guaranteeing them a spot in the Championship play-offs.
But they will do well to capture the imagination like John Docherty’s team 35 years ago, topping the First Division table at one point to the backdrop of the famous Millwall anthem: No one likes us, we don’t care.
‘George Graham started the turnaround,’ explains Sheringham. ‘He hammered me every day — “Stop chipping the ball, goals don’t need to be pretty” — trying to raise standards.
‘When he joined Arsenal, the Doc [John Docherty] took over. Millwall had never been in the top flight before. When we were promoted at Hull, fans got into the dressing room, grown men of 40 and 50 in floods of tears, “Do you know what this means to us? We never thought this would happen”.’