Mills: Daniel John (Danny)

1999-2004 (Player Details)

Right Back

Born: Norwich: 18-05-1977

Debut: v Derby County (h): 07-08-1999

5’10” 12st (2007)

#51 in 100 Greatest LUFC Players Ever

Mills attended Sprowston High School and was a product of Norwich City's School of Excellence, signing for his hometown club in July 1993. Impressive in the Norwich youth team, Mills won England Youth caps and was named as a substitute for the Premiership clash with Everton in November 1994 whilst still seventeen. He made his full debut on 13th August 1995 against Luton Town. At Norwich, as in his future career, he appeared in a variety of roles in defence (right back, central defender and occasionally on the left), his versatility attracted the attention of Charlton manager Alan Curbishley who was picking a Nationwide League Under-Twenty-one side to play against their Serie A counterparts. Mills captained this side. The transfer listed defender was unhappy at the limited number of first team opportunities at Carrow Road and had sought a transfer since December 1997. Gillingham and Millwall had expressed interest on taking Mills on loan but Mike Walker sought a cash injection to fuel new squad additions prior to the transfer deadline day. Mills joined then fellow First Division side Charlton Athletic for a fee of £350,000. While at Carrow Road Mills made sixty-six League appearances, including twenty as a substitute and scored once. In cup competions he had two FA Cup and five League Cup (including two as substitute) appearances and scored once in the League Cup. Mills' arrival at The Valley coincided with a run of form that almost won them automatic promotion into the Premiership. However, they had to settle for a play-off semi-final against Ipswich which was won despite Mills being sent off in the first leg. He played in the victory over Sunderland at Wembley that took Charlton into the Premiership. He aimed a verbal blast at Carrow Road saying that he had proved them wrong by gaining promotion. This victory was worth an extra £50,000 to City's bank balance. Charlton's relegation on 16th May 1999 into Division One led to increased speculation that he would depart from the Valley to fund the club's attempts to return to the top flight. Leeds supposedly made a derisory £1million bid for him but Charlton held out for four times that figure. Their hold-out was backed by his call-up on Sunday 6th June 1999 into the full England squad for the Euro 2000 clash with Bulgaria. Leeds persevered and eventually won their man on 16th June 1999. Norwich City made almost £800,000 from the sale as there was a twenty-five per cent sell-on clause from their sale on March 17th 1998. Mills blasted his first club Norwich after completing his transfer to Leeds. "Norwich have got double now what they got for me when I left and I'm showing a few people there what I can do. Some people at Norwich were pleased to see the back of me because they didn't think I was good enough and I'm delighted to prove them wrong. I've always had belief in myself and now I'm playing for a top Premiership club. It took me a long time to get out of Norwich and when I did a lot of people thought I wasn't good enough for the First Division. I'm glad they are now eating humble pie". His move to Leeds ended an excellent season for him despite Charlton's relegation. While at the Valley he scored three goals in forty-five League appearances. He aso played once in the FA Cup, three times in the League Cup and twice in the play-offs. Mills had joined Leeds on 16th June 1999 for approximately £4 million from relegated Charlton Athletic. He initially found in hard to settle in Leeds and had been the subject of many a transfer rumour in his initial months at Elland Road. Mills had found it hard to displace Gary Kelly in the Leeds first team. Mills impressed in Leeds' Premiership season and in their impressive European Champions League campaign against the likes of Barcelona, Lazio, AC Milan and Real Madrid. In May 2001, Mills' form and an injury to Wes Brown of Manchester United saw him called up for the full England squad for the matches with Mexico and Greece. He made his international debut as a substitute for Emile Heskey in the sixty-seventh minute in the Mexico clash which England won 4-0. On 9th May 2002, he was included in the final twenty-three for the World Cup finals in Korea and Japan. Although Mills was blamed for the Swedish equaliser in the opening World Cup clash on 2nd June, he had a solid game and then impressed in the 1-0 victory over Argentina on 7th June. Although England were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Brazil, he was ever-present in England's five games and had strong performances in every game and was one of the few players to emerge with credit after the defeat to Brazil. On his return to England, he was soon linked with a £7million transfer to champions Arsenal, as Leeds sought to cut their £77million deficit by £15 million in the summer of 2002. Failure to agree a new contract saw Mills linked, in November 2002, with a £8 million move to Middlesbrough whose manager Steve McClaren was known by Mills from their England exploits. The following month saw Arsenal linked with a £5 million move for Mills to replace Oleg Luzhny. Unbelievably, Mills was given a five year contract at £40,000 per week despite the Leeds financial situation. This was to have severe ramifications for the future of the club. Poor form in Leeds' pre-season matches saw Mills dropped from Leeds' first game of the 2003/04 season against Newcastle. He expressed his displeasure at going from European Championship qualifier appearances to the reserves in mere months. Leeds manager Peter Reid didn't appreciate Mills' point-of-view and allegedly told Mills that he has played his last game for Leeds. Birmingham hoped to take advantage of this rift and approached Leeds to take Mills on loan for the 2003/04 season. Middlesbrough also expressed interest in a similar loan deal whilst Kevin Keegan's Manchester City were linked with a £2 million transfer bid. Any of these would have helped Leeds' perilous financial situation. In the end, he joined Middlesbrough on loan for the 2003/04 season with a view to a later permanent deal. In January 2004, Middlesbrough started exploring the possibility of a permanent move for Mills. No move materialised and he continued playing for Boro, helping them win the 2004 Carling Cup final against Bolton. It was Boro's first ever piece of silverware in their entire history. Mills was linked with a move to Rangers at the end of March 2004 although Alex McLeish faced competition from Boro and Birmingham. He was also linked with a return to Carrow Road but this was quickly dismissed by Nigel Worthington who clearly stated that Norwich could not afford Danny's £40,000 per week wages. In the end, Mills signed a five year contract for Kevin Keegan's Manchester City on 13th July 2004 on a free transfer, following Smith, Viduka, Milner, Harte and Robinson out of Elland Road. As part of his severence package with Leeds, Mills continued to receive part of his wages from the Yorkshire club for the duration of his original Leeds contract. While on the season’s loan to Middlesbrough he made twenty-eight League appearances, two in the FA Cup and seven in the League Cup. Losing his place at Manchester City to Nedum Onuoha, he was linked with a move to Wigan Athletic or Blackburn Rovers. He was later linked with a move to newly promoted Sunderland. Mills made it known that he was looking to leave the club in the summer of 2006 as he had had a row with Manager Stuart Pearce over the lack of first team action and thought that he had been blamed for Man City's poor form since the New Year. He joined Hull City on a two months loan on the 14th September 2006. He made nine appearances in the League for the Tigers. Although Mills returned to Manchester City, speculation suggested that he was keen to rejoin Hull on a permanent basis but the sticking point being the £20,000 per week cut in wages. During June 2007, Mills was linked with a move to Scotland to join Rangers. Despite the arrival of his former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson as Man City boss, Mills was placed on the transfer list on 7th August 2007 along with Ousmane Dabo and Paul Dickov. Despite speculation linking him with Southampton and Hull, he rejoined Charlton on 31st August 2007 on loan until the end of December 2007. He made his debut the following day in the 1-0 win at Crystal Palace. Although Charlton were keen on signing Mills permanently, he blotted his copybook with them when sent off in one of his final games. He played nineteen League games for Charlton. Returning to Manchester City, he was linked in the papers with Leeds United and Hull City but instead joined Derby County on 4th January 2008 on loan until the end of the season. He made his debut for the Rams two days later in the 2-2 FA Cup draw with Sheffield Wednesday. His stay at Pride Park was cut short by injury in his second League game, after one other in the F.A. Cup, and he returned to his primary employers. His stay at Manchester City saw fifty-one League appearances, including four as substitute, for one goal. He also made one FA Cup and two League Cup appearances. He was released by City as soon as his contract ran out on 30th June 2009. On 7th August 2009 Mills announced his retirement from football as he could not overcome the knee injury after eighteen months out of the game and on specialists' advice he had called it a day. He had nineteen England full international caps, fourteen Under-Twenty-one caps as well as England Youth honours.