Alex Neil

Alexander Francis Neil (born 9 June 1981) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently head coach of EFL Championship club Millwall. Neil began his professional career at Airdrieonians in 2000, playing half a season in the Scottish Football League First Division before moving to Barnsley. He played 142 games across all competitions in his four-year spell at Barnsley, and then signed for Mansfield Town on a free transfer. After a season at Mansfield, he returned to Scotland's First Division with Hamilton Academical, featuring in 246 matches across a decade and winning promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2008. He became Hamilton's player-manager in 2013 and led them to promotion to the Scottish Premiership in 2014. In January 2015 he was appointed manager of Norwich City, as the second youngest manager in the Football League at the time. Neil guided Norwich to promotion to the Premier League, after winning the 2015 Football League Championship play-off Final. Norwich suffered relegation the following season, on 10 March 2017, Neils time as Norwich City manager came to an end. He was appointed by Preston North End on 4 July 2017 and led the team to seventh place in the 2017–18 Championship. On 11 February 2022 Neil was appointed manager of Sunderland. They were promoted from League One to the Championship winning 2-0 in the 2022 EFL League One play-off Final at Wembley Stadium.