STEVE Morison has expressed his shock at the passing of Millwall owner John Berylson.
Berylson, 70, died in a “tragic accident”, the club announced on Tuesday night.
Morison is a former Lions captain who joined the club three times in Berylson’s time at the helm. He played 336 times for Millwall and won promotion to the Championship twice, in 2010 and 2017.
“I don’t believe it, I can’t quite get my head around it,” Morison said on talkSPORT
“Everything in that statement is spot on. He’s someone who gave me my chance, as well as the manager [Neil Harris], but off the back of it the stuff he’s done for me off the pitch, he’s been that one person within football who’s always been constant and positive, who’s got my back.
“I just can’t believe it. Anyone who knows him won’t have a bad word to say about him. One heck of a human being.
“He’s shown the rest of the Championship how to run a football club, they’re the most stable club in the Championship bar a couple. He just runs it so fantastically.
“It’s going to hit so many people at the club. He’s not an owner or chairman that you don’t see or speak to, he’s there, he goes round and sees everybody.
“Whenever he was at a game to watch it he’d come in the dressing room. He knew everyone’s family, he knew everyone’s kids. He was a personable person, he was someone that you had so much time for.
“His wife and his kids were fantastic as well.
“It’s just a great football club to be a part of and I tell you what, one man sat at the top of that.
“Look how he sticks by his managers. If it’s not going well he’ll pick up the phone to speak to them and say, ‘what do we need to do to make it better?’
“He’s left a legacy at that football club and there isn’t a person who’s walked through that door, played for the football club, who doesn’t owe a hell of a lot to John because there’s things that people don’t know about that football club that he does.
“When I retired, he was the person I called. I asked him if it was okay if I retire and he said, ‘yeah, do what you need to do. I’ll look after you’.
“The things he did for me. At Leeds I was struggling to get a game. He told me to come back and play for Millwall and that he’d sort it out.
“I lose my job, who’s the first person who picks the phone up? John Berylson.
“Who do I pick the phone up to now? That’s the question I’ve got to ask myself.
“He genuinely did care and he loved the football club. Even the people he had around him, the directors, the other people that worked with him, they’re such good people.
“When you leave the football club, you see them and bump into them on holiday or at a match and it’s like you’ve never been away.
“It’s one big family. It’s going to be one hell of a loss for the football club.”
Image: Millwall FC