UFO Info Week-End

This is the nitty-gritty of life as a First Division manager and Mick McCarthy’s body-language down

This is the nitty-gritty of life as a First Division manager, and Mick McCarthy’s body-language down by the dug-out mirrors Sunderland’s fortunes.
When Julio Arca, an exotic flower in a grey setting, puts the visitors in front, there is little more than a satisfied clap of the hands – too early yet for presumption about promotion points. Just as important, Paphitis believes, is the chance to showcase the club round the world and spread the gospel of New Millwall.Asked to identify himself for a radio interview, he says: “I’m Theo Paphitis, chairman of the best club in the world.” Drugs, who needs them?. Existing on crowds of 10,000, they are not scheduled for a single home televised match all season apart from today’s, so money is tight. And I don’t mean by easyJet.”A fat television fee for this afternoon’s game has brought in some much-needed cash for a club who recently declared a £1.2m loss, which would have been more than double but for selling the Irish international Steven Reid to Blackburn Rovers. A repeat of that meeting and Paphitis could be filling out the bulky Uefa Cup form that arrived on his desk last week: “We’ve put it to one side for the moment But we’re 180 minutes from Europe. When Wise (“an infectious character, a winner who I think will go all the way”) suffered the Manager of the Month’s usual fate last Tuesday by losing at Sheffield United, it was his team’s first defeat of 2004.Daniele Dichio from West Bromwich Albion has been the only signing, after much haggling, but the added impetus to Millwall’s attack has propelled them into the play-off positions, with that tantalising vision of the promised Premiership land.Given the luck of the FA Cup draw (Walsall, Telford United, Burnley and now Tranmere) they are also on the verge of a first semi-final since playing Sunderland as a Third Division South club in 1937.

To anyone who takes drugs I’d say, ‘Pack it in and use the money to come to football’.”And what will they find down at the New Den, squeezed in between the railway bridges and housing estates? A team of triers – Millwall Man will tolerate nothing less – who have blossomed since the brave appointment last October of Dennis Wise as player-manager in succession to Mark McGhee. In football, you do A followed by B and still don’t know what’s gonna happen. Not only are you relying on human beings out there, but there’s another 11 buggers trying to stop them. The highs are very, very high and the lows are very, very low. If you do A followed by B, the outcome 99.9 per cent of the time will be C. “We’d started the fad for building a new stadium then going bust, followed by many clubs afterwards.”He soon learned that business is business and football is.. well, different: “Business is dead simple. His own was established as someone who could take an ailing business and turn it round, which seemed the ideal qualification for taking on Millwall Football Club in 1997.

No, we’re not gonna give in, so we just pick ourselves up and work harder.”Reputation is everything, and not easily changed. You feel like saying, ‘I can’t be bothered any more’, but after you’ve calmed down, it gives you that inner strength. I say to my customers, ‘Thank you for telling me if something’s not right’.”I want to know if fans misbehave, I don’t want to sweep it all under the carpet But what saddens me is we’re an easy target. Our community’s a mixed-race community and they love us.”As a first-generation immigrant – he arrived from Cyprus as a six-year-old just in time to watch his first football match, the 1966 World Cup final, on television – he takes these accusations personally. Consequently, the frustration after all the work Millwall have done, which includes banning 200 people from the ground, has at times tempted him to go back to his bras and biros.”You want to enjoy it That’s what’s disappointing about the Burnley game It would have been nice just to enjoy a bit of success I don’t mind people having a go as long as they’re right. “We were founder members of the ‘Kick It Out’ anti-racist campaign and we were described by [former chair of the Commission for Racial Equality] Lord Ousley as a beacon against racism,” he said “We treat racism with zero tolerance.

The driving force behind La Senza and Contessa (as well as the stationery firm Rymans) just wishes that the same embarrassing old matters had not been exposed once again in this particular week.
Instead of revelling in the anticipation of an eminently winnable FA Cup quarter-final at home to Tranmere Rovers, the club have been on the back foot, answering accusations of racist abuse posed by the manager and the most high-profile supporter of their victims in the previous round. Despite being a man who has made much of his personal fortune out of lingerie, Millwall’s ebullient chairman Theo Paphitis insists he is not one for covering up sensitive particulars. It’s just that I’ve been lucky for them to have been match-winners.” Though he insists he is willing to battle for the ball in the air, Hume’s strengths lie in what he calls “my pace and trickery, turning and running at opponents”.Another spectacular goal today in EastEnders territory would be great, but he is content to do whatever is needed in the cause of beating Millwall “Even a five-yard tap-in.”. His attitude is that if he spots the chance of a shot he lets fly at once. “I figure I might not get another chance and if I hit the target, who knows what might happen? And I have been lucky, they have gone in twice But don’t get me wrong, I have meant them. He has made us a really hard team to beat.”So, thanks to his dad, Hume will be taking aim with either foot at Millwall. We have been playing like this since Brian Little came here last October.