Millwall hero should never have left for Nottingham Forest in hindsight: View | OneFootball

Neil Harris is synonymous with Millwall.

The term 'legend' often gets thrown around too often in football, but Harris can certainly be considered a modern-day Millwall Football Club legend. The 46-year-old is currently enjoying his second spell as the Lions' manager after being appointed in February, in the hopes that he would keep the club in the Championship.

His first permanent spell as manager began in 2015 and lasted four years as he led the club to promotion from League One and remained a popular figure at The Den. Harris resigned in 2019, but returned four and a half years later, to the delight of many.

While he is well known for his current managerial career, Harris was also extremely popular as a player and spent multiple seasons finding the nest regularly for Millwall and finishing as their all-time leading scorer. He will look back on his playing days with great fondness but there is one decision that he may have regretted in hindsight, as a move to Nottingham Forest remains a stint to forget.

Harris' playing days with Millwall

In 1998, a 20-year-old Harris signed for Millwall, and he kicked on right away. His first full season saw him earn the club's player of the year award and score a whopping 15 goals in the third tier. That same season, Millwall made the EFL Trophy final at Wembley Stadium, in which Harris featured, but they lost out to Wigan Athletic.

The 2000/01 campaign is up there as one of Harris' best during his playing days, as he scored 27 goals, including three hat tricks, to help Millwall achieve promotion into the second tier. He earned the Golden Boot award for being the top English goal scorer and was given the nickname "Bomber".

Three seasons later, Millwall would unprecedentedly reach the FA Cup final, despite being a second-tier club, and were met with Manchester United in the final. Harris featured throughout that dramatic run, scoring a goal in the quarter-finals against Tranmere Rovers. He also started in the final at the Millennium Stadium, but United won 3-0 on the day.

Despite such a strong first spell at the club, his goals did begin to decrease slightly in the Championship, and player-manager, Dennis Wise, decided that Harris was not quite up to scratch.

He briefly joined Cardiff City on loan, where he would score one goal in just three appearances, before securing a permanent move away from The Den elsewhere. This was a transfer that Harris would go on to regret – something he has since admitted – as he would return to Millwall, where he was much loved.

A disappointing move to Nottingham Forest

Midway through the 2004/05 campaign, the same season that Millwall were playing Europa League football thanks to their FA Cup heroics, Harris secured a move to Nottingham Forest and would play the remainder of the season at the City Ground.

Harris made 13 appearances in the Championship that season with Forest but failed to hit the back of the net once, as warning bells began to ring and the club were relegated to League One.

Due to his poor form, Harris was moved on loan to Gillingham the following season, a club he would return to as manager years later. For the Gills, Harris scored six League One goals in the 2005/06 campaign, but he soon returned to Forest and continued to disappoint in front of goal.

Overall, Harris made 39 appearances in a Nottingham Forest shirt and only managed one goal in a spell to forget. He would then return to Millwall and continue his fairytale with the club and earn legend status – pushing his goal tally up to 135.

Harris is certainly regarded as a modern-day icon at Millwall for his loyalty and the fact he is the club's all-time top scorer but ask a Forest supporter and they may offer a different opinion.

Indeed, the 46-year-old has described the move to The City Ground "as one of the only things I've really regretted in my footballing career", which says it all really.