By Jr
May 8 2005

To say I was shocked by Dennis Wise stepping down after the final game of the season against Burnley is the understatement of the year. Perhaps I should have seen it coming, but the general perception was Wise would see out his contract until 2006. To say I was shocked by Dennis Wise stepping down after the final game of the season against Burnley is the understatement of the year.

Perhaps I should have seen it coming, but the general perception was Wise would see out his contract until 2006.

But the goalposts have moved significantly since Wise was appointed.

He clearly feels frustrated by the lack of funds made available at a crucial time of the season.

Of course, we are only a medium-sized club and need to cut our cloth accordingly, but with a bit more investment perhaps we could have made the play-offs.

The counter argument is we don’t want to bankrupt the club with no guarantee of making the “promised land” of the Premiership, as the play-offs (as we know) is no more than a lottery and Millwall always get issued a losing ticket (if past experiences are anything to go by).

You can’t buy success people say, but Wigan have been bankrolled by Dave Whelan and achieved promotion while champions Sunderland may not have bought “big” this season, but the backbone of their side are huge names at this level.

The Black Cats have extensively used three players that cost over £3million: top scorer Marcus Stewart, winger Julio Arca and defender Stephen Wright.

Obviously, Sunderland’s massive gates help fund those kind of purchases, something impossible at Millwall despite last season’s lucrative FA Cup run.

Let’s hope the incoming manager can cope with the tight budgetary constraints at the Den, as it looks like we might seek to balance the books by offloading a player or two.

As to the new manager, there are a number of names in the hat: Steve Tilson of play-off contenders Southend, Brentford’s Martin Allen who has a similar CV but one division up, and Steve Wigley - who has turned Southampton’s youth team into champions.

It’s going to a tough ask for the new boss (whoever he is), but here’s wishing him the very best of luck!