Millwall facing a major squad overhaul in the summer transfer window

Millwall are set for arguably their biggest squad rebuild since they regained Championship status, with the lack of permanent transfers in the January window only increasing the summer workload.

The Lions moved on fringe players Ben Thompson, Matt Smith and Jon Dadi Bodvarsson last month on free transfers and only added Luke Freeman and Oliver Burke on loan from Sheffield United.

Millwall manager Gary Rowett had talked about adding younger players into his squad for the second half of the campaign but saw bids for the likes of Derby’s Louie Sibley, Fortuna Sittard’s Zian Flemming and FC Utrecht’s Bart Ramselaar rejected.

It means the spotlight will firmly be on the South London outfit’s recruitment drive at the end of the season.

It seems a formality that Jed Wallace, the subject of two bids from Nottingham Forest, will move on.

Winger Connor Mahoney is not expected to be offered fresh terms.

Midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld, 31, and Alex Pearce, 33, are also due to be free agents. Benik Afobe, Sheyi Ojo, Burke and Freeman will also no longer be on the Den payroll.

“The first thing is that the summer is a long way away – but we recognise there is probably going to be a little bit of change in the summer,” said Rowett. “That was why we really wanted to try and go down a different route this window. We knew if we weren’t able to that there is a massive, massive summer ahead.

“It’s not always easy to go and sign six or seven players, it’s a lot easier to sign two or three.

“It’s also something we need to sit down and work out exactly how we do that. We’ve spent two transfer fees in four difficult windows, I appreciate we’ve had Covid.

“John [Berylson, owner] has certainly backed us in terms of trying to strengthen the team and the budget. But we also need to look a little bit longer term, that is going to be a bit of a challenge.

“I’m sure once we get a few more games out of the way then we’ll look forward to that – but it’s quite difficult  when you finish one window and then immediately look at the next one. It takes a little bit of working out.

“Our priority is to get the best out of this squad. If we get all the players back fit and available then we look an awful lot stronger in the next few weeks. The summer is going to be a big amount of work to do.

“We’re a club that is always going to have to utilise the loan market but we’re also a club that wants to try and progressively bring through young players, that’s something we’ve seen this year – it’s been a real positive.”

As well as the moves that the Lions made which did creep into the public domain there were also ones that stayed under the media radar.

“We enquired about a League One player who we really liked and allegedly a club bid around £1.5m and it was turned down,” said Rowett.

“We bid for a player in our division, on loan from a Premier League club, and again we couldn’t quite get there financially.

“It’s certainly not easy. It’s well-documented we bid for a player in the European market, who is 23, and the club wanted €3m.

“There is no easy way to get these players. If we had enquiries for Danny McNamara and Billy Mitchell, we wouldn’t entertain bids at those sorts of levels.

“It’s quite difficult to get those kind of players without investing big amounts of money in them or you get them before they are performing well, which is difficult when you’re trying to achieve something in the Championship.

“We’re not just trying to stay in the division or be an okay League One side – we’re trying to get out of the Championship.

“When you put all that into the mix it is very, very difficult to bring those players in.

“It’s my job as manager of Millwall Football Club to sell to the board how do we change that? How do we do that a little bit better and adjust our model a tiny bit.

“I think it’s going to need a slightly different approach to transfer windows. But we have got some exciting youngsters coming through – maybe that’s the easiest way of getting them into our first team.

“We’re trying to compete at the top end of the Championship – it’s got to be the right balance.

“We set out in the window with the right intention and the right desire to try and change things. But it is not as simple as that. January is not an easy window. It’s also not easy to try and bring those type of players in.”