I'm older and wiser now

Somehow you can't imagine Manchester United's pampered players and executives doing the same. But then Millwall isn't that sort of club. For a start, they've spent years chanting: "No one likes us, we don't care", and there is a sense of mischief that's redolent of Wimbledon's Crazy Gang, no doubt influenced by Wise's presence.

Paphitis, who recently promised to do a streak should they reach the final, later tells me he's going to do it next week. He won't say if it will be in Trafalgar Square, as promised, but insists it will be in a public place.

Is this a new start for the club more famous for its hooligans than its football? Wise thinks so.

"I can't believe we're in the final. It's difficult to get to grips with sometimes," he says. "I'm looking forward to it but because I'm the manager now, it's a different type of excitement. I'm not nervous, I've never been nervous about playing in finals."

He has played in four - winning with Wimbledon in 1988 and Chelsea in 1997 and 2000 (and losing with them in 1994) - but for his young charges, this is the first, and possibly only, chance they'll get. He's not sure he'll play on the day, having torn muscles in his calf, but will find out next week. "If I'm not fit to play, I won't. I would like to but I have to pick the team that is capable of doing well."

Is he hopeful? "If Manchester United play poorly and we play to our maximum, we've got a small chance of winning," he says. "But if they play fantastically, we've got no chance. I'm pleased that we've got this far, for everyone, not just myself. It's good for the players and the fans and I want them to enjoy it."

Admittedly, they have had a fairly easy run to the final - including victories over Burnley, Tranmere Rovers, Walsall and Sunderland - and Manchester United will be their first Premiership opposition, but it's still the first time Millwall have made it this far. Even if they are defeated the team will be playing in Europe next season as they automatically qualify for the Uefa Cup. But promotion to the Premiership is what Wise wants most and he says he would swap being in the final for a place in the play-offs.

"We thought we had a chance and, to be honest, the FA Cup has been a distraction. We were sitting fifth with two games in hand, we were in a good position but we messed it up because everybody was focusing on the Cup," he says of the team's performance in the closing weeks of the season.

"Next season I want to win promotion." The midfielder says he will continue to play next season. "When Ray [Wilkins] tells me I'm useless, I'll stop."

Wise, or "Wisey" as he is known to all around him, grew up in Notting Hill ("not the posh part") in a council flat with his parents and older sister He went to a local school where among his friends was another talented-young footballer, Les Ferdinand. It was rumoured that as a prank the pair trashed the Blue Peter garden at the nearby BBC TV Centre. Today Wise just laughs. "It wasn't me!"

He enjoyed his childhood: "My family didn't have a lot of money, but we were happy," he says. His father, a painter and decorator (now a publican), ran a Sunday league team and nurtured his son's ability but he was tough with him. He made Wise play on gravel with grown men and once clouted him when he refused to shake hands with the captain of the team which had just beaten him ("I've always hated losing").

At 15, Wise went to Southampton as an apprentice and found being away from home very hard. "I was young and I missed my family," he says. When Wimbledon signed him in 1985, he was thrilled to move back to London.

Chelsea signed him for £1.6 million in 1990, and after Ruud Gullit became manager Wise became the most successful captain in the club's history, skippering the side to two FA Cup victories, as well as winning the Worthington and European Cup Winners' Cups. Over his career he also won 21 England caps.

His fiery temper often got him into trouble, but he was loved by fans for his passion on the pitch and his hijinks off it. "I used to be a 100mph person, in everything I did. The way I played and lived my life got me into trouble. Yes, there have been things I probably shouldn't have done, but I'm not the sort of person to have regrets."

One favourite joke was to steal Chelsea striker Tony Cascarino's false teeth and paint some of them black. Another time, he shut his then manager, Glenn Hoddle, in a dark room for half an hour.

He was signed by Leicester City in 2001 for £1.6 million and when he fell out with them in 2002, he joined Millwall. Wise has brought the Lions a long way since he became their player manager last October. They seemed like the perfect match - Wise is no stranger to brawls, both on and off the pitch, and neither are some of Millwall's hardcore supporters.

The club has a history of mayhem going back 100 years. Just two years ago, a play-off defeat against Birmingham City sparked a riot in which a 1,000-strong mob went on a rampage, fought with police and trashed residents' cars. But, says Wise, they are both changing (although he got off to a bad start when he was sent off on his debut as player-manager).

"I was a lot different when I was younger. I'd do something, then think afterwards," he says. "But I'm older now and more mellow. I've made a lot of mistakes, but I learned from them and it's made me a better person."

He won't talk about the bust-up with Leicester team-mate Davidson while they were on a pre-season tour of Finland two years ago, and for which he is still pursuing a £2.3 million compensation claim for being sacked, except to say "we shook hands after it".

As for the time Wise was charged with assaulting a taxi driver and smashing the glass partition in his cab after they got in an argument, he says, "That wasn't a nice time. I was injured at the time as well and I ended up in more trouble than I needed to be in." Believing he would get community service, he was stunned when he was sentenced to three months in prison. Reduced to a sobbing wreck in his police cell, he was granted leave to appeal (he was subsequently acquitted) minutes before the prison bus was due to leave.

Sir Alex Ferguson once claimed Wise could start a fight in an empty room. Why did he get into so much trouble? "I don't know. I stick up for myself. Sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I'm right, but all I've ever done is what I thought was right at the time and sometimes it got me into trouble. But when it's finished, it's forgotten."

Having children has changed him - Henry, Millwall's mascot, is four and Amber is four months - and he will marry his long-term girlfriend, Claire Dunn, in June. They have been together for eight years and Claire, a solicitor specialising in medical negligence, is not your average footballer's wife.

"She's not too fussed about football," he says. "She doesn't come to all the games. It's lovely having kids. I probably stay in a lot more now and enjoy time with them. It has calmed me down, they're my responsibility now and I think about them more than anything else. I've never thought of myself as tough. I give as much as I get and I play to win. I like to win and I'll do whatever I can."

He says Millwall is changing, too. Chairman Theo Paphitis, who made his millions from the stationery chain Rymans and lingerie chains La Senza and Countessa, introduced a tough membership scheme to keep out troublemakers and, while it means the stands are never filled these days, it appears to be working.

Even the club's logo was changed from a fearsome lion to something more resembling two pussycats. "Since I've been here, violence hasn't been a problem," says Wise. "The supporters have been behind us. I wish we had a few more - we get 9,000 every week but it would be nice if we could fill the place. There is violence in the world, simple as that. You can't just pick out football. That's life for you, you're not going to be able to stop all of it."

So desperate are Millwall's executives to bury their club's association with hooliganism that they stopped their players attending this week's premiere of The Football Factory, a film portraying the violent confrontation s between rival Chelsea and Millwall "firms". As Millwall prepare for the biggest game in their history, the release of the film today is particularly unfortunate timing, although the film-makers would no doubt disagree. "I didn't think it was a good idea for the players to be associated with it," says Wise.

"I wouldn't say I banned them but I said I wouldn't appreciate it if they went. It was their choice." Wise says he won't watch the film.

Suddenly my 30 minutes are up and Wise, not renowned for his long attention span, is getting bored. He keeps stuffing biscuits into his mouth. With his mouth full he shouts across the room: "Shirley, you're beautiful," to Darren Ward, the 25-year-old defender and the David Beckham of the team (in talent as well as looks - he is Millwall's Player of the Year).

Wise isn't sure why Ward is called Shirley - it's possibly something to do with Shirley Temple and his blond locks. Actually, in true footballing tradition, Ward's hairstyle is more of a mullet - a cross between Chris Waddle and that bloke from Slade. "How good-looking is this man?" Wise asks me. Erm, very, I say, I like his haircut. "Are you taking the piss? 'Ere, she's taking the piss!" he shouts again and collapses into giggles.

Off he goes, Millwall's little big man, and I last glimpse him circled by his players laughing and joking as if they haven't got a care in the world.