It’s fair to say that new Forest Green Rovers signing Joseph Mills is an intelligent player.

His dad is big in the world of finance and Mills junior is keen to pursue a similar career path when he eventually hangs up his playing boots.

Not that he’s in any hurry to do that just yet. The 28-year-old left-back, who can also play left-side midfield, has signed a two-year contract with Forest Green and will be looking to play a full part as the club bid to kick on after last season’s debut campaign in the Football League.

“I do talk to my dad about business and finance and it is something I’m interested in,” said Mills.

And Mills is clearly a good listener because when you ask him about Forest Green’s aims for this season he is not one for getting too carried away.

He realises, just as when you are starting a business, it’s very much a work in progress.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s about building bricks,” he said. “We want to improve on last season and the aim is to get into the top half of the table.

“If we are close enough to push for the play-offs that would be even better.”

That would indeed, particularly after the club’s first season in the big-time when they made certain of staying in League Two only in the final few weeks of the season.

But stay up they did – and that’s an achievement that shouldn’t be underestimated – and now Mark Cooper and his squad are hopeful of enjoying a much better campaign this time around.

And in Joseph Mills, Cooper has certainly signed a player with a very good playing pedigree.

He was in the academy set-up at Aston Villa before switching to Southampton in August 2006 after taking – and passing – his GCSEs.

His older brother Matthew, 31, was also at Southampton’s academy and although he has carved out a very good career for himself – the Barnsley centre-back has played over 400 games and includes clubs such as Southampton, Manchester City, Leicester, Bolton, Reading and Nottingham Forest on his CV – he was far from being the biggest name at the south coast club’s academy in the mid-noughties.

“I was at Southampton at the same time as Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale,” said Joseph Mills, who like his brother was born in Swindon. “We all lived in the same house together, it was a great experience living away from home for the first time.”

Southampton have always had a very good reputation as far as their academy is concerned – just look at some of the players who have come through their junior ranks and continue to do so – and the young Mills soon found himself making his debut for the first team in August 2008 at the age of just 18.

He made over 30 appearances for the club over the next three years – some of them in the Championship and some of them in League One.

He has also played for Reading, Doncaster and Burnley in the Championship – the last two on loan – and was part of the Reading squad which won promotion to the Premier League under Brian McDermott in 2011/12 when Jason Roberts, Adam Federici and Alex Pearce were among his team-mates.

“We had a great team spirit,” recalls Mills, who played 16 games that season.

There were also loans spells at Scunthorpe, Shrewsbury and Oldham before he signed permanently for Oldham at the start of the 2014/15 season.

He spent two seasons at the League One club before he decided it was time to move on again.

But not for him a move to one of the plethora of clubs close by in the north west or even a hop across the Pennines to one of the many clubs in Yorkshire or the north east.

No, Mills decided to go all the way to the other side of the world for the next step of his footballing journey.

“I’d always wanted to play abroad,” said Mills, “so when the opportunity to join Perth Scorchers came along it was too good to miss.

“My wife Amy had just had a baby girl so it was now or never.”

He spent two years playing in Australia in the A-League and while he loved his time Down Under he certainly clocked up some air miles during that period.

“The nearest away game was Adelaide and that was a three-hour flight,” he laughed.

And what about the standard of football, what was that like?

“It’s better than many people think it is,” said Mills. “The crowds were anything from 7,000 to 16,000. Playing there was a real eye-opener and a great experience.”

The plan was always to return home after two years and with his daughter Imogen soon to be joined by a baby brother, Mills couldn’t be happier to have signed for Forest Green.

When he spoke to The Local Answer, he was close to buying a house in his home town Swindon which will mean for one away game at least – Forest Green play at the County Ground on Saturday 2nd February – his journey will be nearer to three minutes than the three hours or more he has been used to Down Under!

That has to be good news of course and when he returned to pre-season training at the start of July his new team-mates could have been forgiven for thinking he’d brought the Australian weather with him as the country was gripped by a heatwave more commonplace in the southern hemisphere.

“I don’t know why people moan about the weather in this country,” Mills laughed.

Mills is easy to talk to and happy to answer any questions put to him but ultimately he’ll be judged by his performances out on the pitch of course.

So what sort of player is Joseph Mills?

“I’m an attacking full-back,” he said. “I like to get forward and get crosses in the box. But I know the most important thing is the defending, that comes first.

“I’m 5ft 10in so I’m not a big defender. I like to rely on my speed and I’m not afraid to make a tackle.”

He can play left-back or left midfield so where would he prefer to play?

“That’s the manager’s discretion,” he laughed.

Good answer, that’s an ‘A star’! Joseph Mills should do very well at Forest Green.