Mick Mills - Club Career

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 fledgling 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.

A full back who could play on either side but was more frequently used on the left, Mills spent his late teens in and out of the Ipswich first team but became an established regular in 1969, the year the club achieved promotion to the First Division. It was also the year that Bobby Robson arrived as manager.

Robson appointed Mills as team captain in 1971 and so began a close working relationship between coach and skipper which was at the forefront of Ipswich's rise to the top of the game for a decade.

In 1973, Ipswich finished fourth in the First Division, won the Texaco Cup and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

Ipswich began to finish in the top sector of the First Division with some regularity and played in numerous European competitions, but actual success seemed to elude them. Mills was the experienced captain of a young side consisting mainly of players brought through the ranks. They achieved third place in the First Division in 1977 and expected to go better than that the following year.

However, that subsequent season in the First Division for Ipswich was disappointing as they struggled to find any consistency and finished a lowly 16th. There was a tremendous bonus for them in the FA Cup, however, as they reached the final where they beat favourites Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley. Mills, as captain, lifted the trophy - Ipswich's first major honour for 16 years.

Ipswich, meanwhile, continued to hit high spots, finishing in the top five every year between 1978 and 1982, including a memorable season in 1981 which saw them just miss out on First Division and FA Cup glory, but won the UEFA Cup, which Mills duly collected after victory over AZ 67 Alkmaar in the final.

In the same year, Robson had told a 33-year old Mills that his contract at Ipswich would not be renewed. Mills joined Southampton in November 1982 for 40,000 pounds while Robson became Ron Greenwood's replacement as England manager, thereby ending Mills' international career too. He made 741 appearances for Ipswich over 17 years.

Despite his advancing years, Mills played frequently at Southampton over three seasons.