Millwall boss keen to freshen up squad as he eyes a busier January transfer window

Gary Rowett is hoping to be busier than normal in the January transfer window as he feels his Millwall squad is in need of freshening up.

Jed Wallace, Tom Bradshaw, Connor Mahoney, Matt Smith, Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, Alex Pearce and Ben Thompson are all out of contract at the end of this season.

Right-back Mahlon Romeo is on a season-long loan at Portsmouth.

Rowett has indicated previously that he would like to secure Bradshaw on new terms. The forward’s family is settled in the Beckenham area.

“My thought process this window is that I would like to do some business,” Rowett told the South London Press. “Probably a little bit more than we maybe normally would do in January. And the reasons behind that is we’ve probably got four or five players who are in limbo a little bit.

“Whether they come to the end of the season and that is not being involved or featuring. We’ve got a couple of other moving parts. And I also think it’s probably a good time to have a little freshen as well of the squad. That’s going to be something that is done in the summer but it makes sense to do some of it in January, if we can, as well.

“Of course ins are always going to depend on outs as well. We’ve said that previously and it hampered us a little bit in the summer, to a certain degree.

“We’ve got to balance the books and in Covid times particularly, we have got to be sensible in what we do. But now is a good time, we need to push on and freshen up a little bit.

“I’m pleased with the squad but there are four or five players who haven’t featured very much. And ideally, if you get to that point, those players want to play football.

“We’ve also got the chance of bringing some young players back [from their loan spells] – the likes of Tyler Burey, Tanto [Isaac Olaofe] and Hayden [Muller]. Whether we do that or not is down to internal conversations.

“It’s hard to be too specific in terms of what we’re planning. We know that certain things have to move for us as a club to do that. But this will be our fourth window and we’ve signed two players for money, just over a million pounds, so it’s clear we haven’t spent massive transfer fees on people.

“What we need this window is to try and show that little bit of ambition, if we can, to try and change things around a little bit.”