Millwall U18 joint-boss Chris Perry would ‘fancy a go’ at senior management job in the future

Millwall U18 joint manager Chris Perry has got aspirations to be a boss at senior level.

The 51-year-old former centre-back played Premier League football for Wimbledon, Charlton and Tottenham.

Perry has been working on the coaching side at the Lions since 2015.

“I’ve always sort of fancied having a go at it,” he told the South London Press, when asked about if the goal was to eventually manage at first-team level. “I’ve got a lot of experience now and I know what sort of way I’d want to play – if it ever was to happen.

“I’m ambitious. I’d love to do it here, at Millwall, if I’m honest.

“I’d love to be able to come through because if there is one thing I do know, after being here eight or nine years now, it is the strengths of the club and the history of virtually every player from the first-team down.

“It would be much easier to become a manager here than to go somewhere else, where you haven’t got that knowledge of the playing group.”

Millwall’s academy has excelled and their U18s reached the FA Youth Cup semi-final last season, dumping out Chelsea before being defeated at Leeds United’s Elland Road. They won the Professional Development League Cup final in April.

The battle for the South Londoners is always to keep their prize assets amid interest from clubs higher up the food chain.

“Most of our boys are pretty local so it is hard for them to turn down potentially playing for a Premier League club,” said Perry.

“The money that they throw at them – we can’t match that. We completely understand that.

“We still think they might have been better off here and might have got in the first team – which is always a little bit frustrating. But how do you stop people going and pursuing their dream?

“The academy is very under-rated.

“We bring through some really good players and everyone who works here works probably above and beyond what they are asked to do, to try and produce these players and make it a really, really good environment to bring them through.

“We do a fantastic job. Last season was probably a culmination of all that, in that we got the success we deserved on the field. We won the league the year before that. We really want to get more boys in the first team. That is the ultimate aim.

“We are doing well with the teams and their success but for us success is players playing in our first-team, or if not our first-team then someone else’s first team.”

PICTURE: BRIAN TONKS