Millwall boss expecting some of his squad to be assessing move options in January window

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Gary Rowett knows that some of his Millwall squad are likely to be eyeing the exit door when the transfer window opens on January 1.

The Lions have a number of players who could be free agents in the summer – including the likes of Matt Smith, Shaun Williams, Ryan Leonard and Tom Bradshaw.

Millwall manager Rowett said: “Look at someone like Jiri [Skalak] for example – he is out of contract at the end of the season.

“It will be natural in January for his representatives to be looking at his options, just because that would be them doing their job.

“We have got quite a few of those players and because of Covid we haven’t sat down and looked at it.

“There are going to be one or two in January who might have offers from other places and try and see where that leads.

“Within any football club you have got 80 per cent who are pretty happy and 20 per cent who maybe haven’t had enough game time and are looking for an opportunity elsewhere. That’s just football and how it happens. I’ve been in that situation myself as a player.

“I expect some sort of movement in terms of loan players and there were a couple of areas in the summer we didn’t quite move on, again because of the situation [with Covid-19].

“Sometimes you get to this point and in January you’re only looking to add one or two and let one or two out to play a bit more football. But you put all of what I’ve just said into the melting pot and hopefully we’ll be in a position to do a bit more, for different reasons.”