Championship Preview: Millwall

It was an interesting season for Millwall. The South London club was promoted at Wembley, where their fans managed to annoy everyone in football, including their own players, almost had a dodgy property deal kill the club, and had a fan gain “fame” by taking on multiple machete wielding terrorists with only his fists.

First, let’s get this out of the way. Even if everyone would usually dislike a guy swinging his fists screaming “F—K YOU, I’M MILLWALL”, it was nice to see Roy Larner take on multiple terrorists wielding machetes in a pub with only his bare hands. Police say the man likely saved the lives of more than a few people, and literally put himself in harm’s way, giving other people time to flee the pub. He had to go to hospital for treatment of his wounds and is generally considered a hero of the June 3rd terrorist attack on South London.

Next, let’s remember that there was a plan by the local council to use something called CPOs to force the club to sell land near The New Den to offshore property developers with links to the local council. It was a pretty corrupt sounding deal, and eventually was stopped after the deal was publicized and politicians from across the spectrum cried foul at the efforts. I even wrote about the whole thing back in January for SBNation’s West Ham United site Brace the Hammer, which made my head hurt to say nice things about Millwall.

But true to form, every time you start to think nice, or at least not mean things, about Millwall, they remind you why everyone hates them. If it’s not the racist chanting at Tottenham Hotspur, it’s the pitch invasion at Wembley which literally caused their own players, including former Leeds United player Steve Morison, to get annoyed at the fans.

So Millwall’s back in the Championship.

Leeds United fans will have a “fun” away day traveling to South London to see the Whites take on Millwall. However, given that Millwall struggled for much of the season, only to go on a hot streak to qualify for the playoffs and then only barely beat Leeds neighbor Bradford City to secure promotion, this may be a difficult campaign for the Lions. And what a shame that will be.

I can’t speak for all Leeds fans, but I think most fans would have enjoyed a local derby against Bradford more than a long haul down to London to face off against Millwall, but in any case, you can only play the teams that are on the schedule. So while it won’t be a “fun” trip south, Leeds should be able to pick up between four and six points against the Championship new boys this upcoming season.

Oh, and for all of you Americans who want to be Millwall fans because of the dude who started throwing punches in a pub against the terrorists? Don’t. Just don’t. It may be “hipster” to follow football now in the States, but rooting for Millwall is taking it too far. There is a reason no one likes them, and it’s not just that they’re from an unfashionable part of South London. The fans have given every other fanbase in the UK a whole ton of reasons to hate them.