So far, the youth system is doing its job. As well as the youth products already in the first team and of course Samba, who is currently back at school preparing for his GCSEs, Millwall can rely on Scottish interntional Peter Sweeney, Alan Dunne, Charley Hearn and Paul Robinson coming through the ranks and making their first-team debuts in the near future. The future is important to the club, but right now the business of promotion, and the financial rewards it brings, are on their minds. Paphitis' success in curtailing the club's spending and returning Millwall to profitability is only part of the battle that the Lions face. The more sinister side of the club has been a little more difficult to tame, which is no surprise considering in its darkest days its own fans were, at times, in danger of swallowing their own club whole.
Hooliganism is still a harsh reality that looms over the club.
Millwall find that their position in one of the most ethnically diverse areas in the country is a double-edged sword. On the one side, they have a community which is quite used to integration and a talent pool of keen, working class kids at their disposal. Although the days of mass pitch invasions, like the one that led to Luton banning away fans in 1987, have thankfully gone, hooliganism lives on at the New Den. Not long after his arrival, Paphitis was forced to deny that Rufus Brevett was about to become the victim of a racist attack when two fans ran onto the pitch and were tackled before reaching the Fulham defender. The incident came just weeks after a suspended sentence for a riot against Derby two years earlier had run out.