Michael Dennis Mills (born 4 January 1949) is an English former footballer who played for Ipswich Town, Southampton and Stoke City. He managed Stoke City, Colchester United and Birmingham City. During his career he achieved Ipswich Town's record number of appearances and captained England at the 1982 World Cup. He is 7th on the list of all-time appearances in the top-flight of English football (First Division and Premier League) with 658 league appearances, and fourth for outfield players.
He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1984 New Year Honours, for "services to association football".
Club career
Mills joined Portsmouth as a schoolboy, but the club abandoned its youth system, forcing him to look for a new club to begin his career. Ipswich Town took him on and he made his debut for the first team in 1966, aged just 17, in a 5–2 victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers. At Stoke, Mills played himself 44 times before deciding to retire from playing at the age of 38.
International career
Mills represented England at youth and under-23 levels.
During the 1972–73 season, England manager Alf Ramsey gave Mills his first international cap in a 1–1 draw with Yugoslavia at Wembley. Mills played at right back, a position which became more familiar to him with England than with Ipswich as his career continued. His second cap came in 1976 against Wales and he had eleven by the end of the 1977 campaign.
While his club had finally won a trophy, Mills' international career was in a semi-statuesque state. Don Revie had given him a number of games at left back, including the opening qualifiers for the 1978 World Cup (a straightforward 4–1 win for England over Finland, followed by a disappointing 2–0 defeat to Italy) but Mills had to cope with much competition for both full back slots. After Revie's departure, successor Ron Greenwood seemed to prefer Liverpool's Phil Neal at right back and Leeds United's Trevor Cherry at left back, with Mills as reserve for both. He did not play in any of the remaining qualifying games, and England failed to reach the finals. Mills, however, started to become a regular in the England set-up in 1978 though some confusion continued over his best position as, of the eight internationals during that year, he played six at left back (with Neal on the right) and two at right back (with Cherry down the left). Mills sacrificed his place in the final England game of 1978, against Czechoslovakia, when Nottingham Forest right back Viv Anderson was handed his debut, becoming England's first black player.
Another young debutant, Kenny Sansom, emerged in 1979 to give Mills food for thought in the other full back slot, but he began to settle in at left back for his country as England qualified for the 1980 European Championships. Mills was named in Greenwood's squad but by now Sansom was an established option in the left back slot and he got the nod over Mills in England's opening two group games – a draw with Belgium and a defeat against hosts Italy – before Mills returned for the final game against Spain, which, despite an England win, saw their exit from the tournament. Mills played four England matches in 1981 – notably, they were all World Cup qualifiers for the 1982 tournament, with Greenwood happy to use less-experienced players like Anderson and Sansom in the friendly games which preceded them. When England beat Hungary at Wembley in their final qualifier to reach their first World Cup in a dozen years, Mills won his 35th cap.
Still switching flanks for his country when required (but rarely for club – he was almost always the left back), Mills played in just two of the preparation matches for the competition, but was named in the team as right back and captain (squad captain Kevin Keegan was injured) when England played their first game of the tournament against France in Bilbao. England won 3–1 and Mills stayed in the side for the remaining group matches, both of which England also won, although he switched to left back for the final match to allow a run-out for Neal. Greenwood reverted to a Mills-Sansom full back pairing for the second phase, but two goalless draws against West Germany and Spain (the latter of which finally saw Keegan's return to the team) sent England out of the competition.
Coaching and managerial career
In 1985, Mills became player-manager of Stoke City with Sammy Chung as his assistant. Mills joined Stoke with the club a very poor position having just been relegated from the First Division with a record low points tally and with little money available. Mills is now retired, but continues as a football summariser for BBC Radio Suffolk, which he continues to do to this day on match day live.
In 2010, Mills was named a patron of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.
Career statistics
Club
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
|-
!rowspan="2"|Club
!rowspan="2"|Season
!colspan="3"|League
!colspan="2"|FA Cup
!colspan="2"|League Cup
!colspan="2"|Europe
!colspan="2"|Other
!colspan="2"|Total
|-
!Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="19"|Ipswich Town
|1965–66
|Second Division
|2||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||2||0
|-
|1966–67
|Second Division
|22||0||1||0||2||0||0||0||0||0||25||0
|-
|1967–68
|Second Division
|10||0||1||0||2||0||0||0||0||0||13||0
|-
|1968–69
|First Division
|36||2||1||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||37||2
|-
|1969–70
|First Division
|40||3||1||0||3||1||0||0||0||0||44||4
|-
|1970–71
|First Division
|42||1||6||1||2||0||0||0||0||0||50||2
|-
|1971–72
|First Division
|35||0||2||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||38||0
|-
|1972–73
|First Division
|42||0||2||0||2||0||0||0||8||0||54||0
|-
|1973–74
|First Division
|42||2||3||0||4||1||8||0||0||0||57||2
|-
|1974–75
|First Division
|42||1||9||1||5||0||0||0||0||0||56||2
|-
|1975–76
|First Division
|42||1||3||0||1||0||4||0||0||0||50||1
|-
|1976–77
|First Division
|37||0||3||0||2||0||0||0||0||0||42||0
|-
|1977–78
|First Division
|34||6||7||2||2||0||5||0||0||0||48||8
|-
|1978–79
|First Division
|42||2||5||1||1||0||6||0||1||0||55||3
|-
|1979–80
|First Division
|37||1||4||0||2||0||3||1||0||0||46||2
|-
|1980–81
|First Division
|33||0||6||0||5||0||10||0||0||0||54||0
|-
|1981–82
|First Division
|42||3||3||0||8||0||2||0||0||0||55||3
|-
|1982–83
|First Division
|11||0||0||0||2||0||2||0||0||0||15||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!591!!22!!57!!5!!44!!2!!40!!1!!9!!0!!741!!30
|-
|rowspan="4"|Southampton
|1982–83
|First Division
|27||1||1||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||28||1
|-
|1983–84
|First Division
|34||2||6||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||41||2
|-
|1984–85
|First Division
|42||0||3||0||7||0||2||0||0||0||54||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!103!!3!!10!!0!!8!!0!!2!!0!!0!!0!!123!!3
|-
|rowspan="4"|Stoke City
|1985–86
|Second Division
|31||0||1||0||3||0||0||0||2||0||37||0
|-
|1986–87
|Second Division
|6||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||6||0
|-
|1987–88
|Second Division
|1||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||1||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total
!38!!0!!1!!0!!3!!0!!0!!0!!2!!0!!44!!0
|-
!colspan="3"|Career total
!730!!25!!68!!5!!60!!2!!42!!1!!11!!0!!911!!33
|}
International
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="8"|England
|1972||1||0
|-
|1976||9||0
|-
|1977||3||0
|-
|1978||8||0
|-
|1979||7||0
|-
|1980||3||0
|-
|1981||4||0
|-
|1982||7||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total!!42!!0
|}
Managerial statistics
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Managerial record by club and tenure
|-
!rowspan="2"|Team
!rowspan="2"|From
!rowspan="2"|To
!colspan="5"|Record
|-
!!!!!!!!!
|-
|align=left|Stoke City
|align=left|24 June 1985
|align=left|7 November 1989
|-
|align=left|Colchester United
|align=left|3 January 1990
|align=left|9 May 1990
|-
|align=left|Birmingham City
|align=left|15 October 2001
|align=left|12 December 2001
|-
!colspan="3"|Total
|}
Honours
As a player
Ipswich Town
- FA Cup: 1977–78
- UEFA Cup: 1980–81
- Football League Second Division: 1967–68
Individual
- Ipswich Town Player of the Year: 1977–1978
- Football League First Division PFA Team of the Year: 1976–77
- Ipswich Town Hall of Fame: Inducted 2007
See also
- List of footballers with the most official appearances
References
External links
- Mick Mills profile at Ipswich Town Talk
- Interview with Mick Mills at The East Anglian Daily Times