‘This season I want to kick on and really make a name for myself’ – Millwall’s Romain Esse excited by fresh Championship challenge

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Romain Esse was the matchwinner for Millwall on the opening day of the last Championship season and the teenage talent is fully intending to make sure he has plenty more moments to add to his highlights reel this time around.

The 19-year-old attacker sat down with the South London Press on Monday, exactly 12 months to the day after he scored in the 1-0 victory at Middlesbrough.

Esse, raised in Peckham and Bermondsey, netted twice in 25 league appearances in the 2023-24 season – with six of those starts.

Both Esse and Aidomo Emakhu came on in the second half against Boro with the young Irishman supplying the assist.

“Me and Aido talk about it all the time – we can still remember it like it was yesterday,” said Esse, who has moved up to the England U20 squad after being capped at U19 level. “We were really looking to kick on after that moment but unfortunately it didn’t really happen how we wanted it to.

“We know that we have got very important seasons this time. We have both started pre-season very well, so we are looking forward to it.

“Last season was mainly understanding things. This one is the one to really kick on and make a name for myself.”

Talent will take you a long way. But without tactical awareness – particularly the far less glitzy defensive duties – then opportunities can be more difficult to come by.

It was Esse’s biggest takeaway from the lessons learned from the last season, when he played under three different bosses.

“I’d like to say thanks to them all  – because they all helped me,” said Esse, who has played 40 senior matches for Millwall. “Even though it was ups and downs, up and downs, we got through it and the boys defo grew a lot closer. We all love each other.

“It is about knowing how much I need to do off the ball to then do what I do on the ball. I know on the ball is not a problem. Off the ball isn’t a problem…but it’s doing that extra bit so the gaffer can see that I can play week in and week out.

“Even last season, towards the end of it, I was ready. This season I am very, very ready and looking to kick on. I’ve added defensively to my game. It is one of the reasons I’ve started playing again. I’m enjoying both sides of it. On the ball I can do my magic.”

There are glimpses of Esse’s potential – the friendly against Forest, for example, when he breezed past a couple of opponents like they were not there before a sublime through pass for Duncan Watmore, who hit the bar.

“That is the type of stuff I’m looking to bring,” he said, when asked about that moment. “I can create something out of nothing. I can add a lot of goals and assists to my game, with more minutes. I can really be bright for this team.”

A new season brings new hope.

Millwall’s 13th-placed finish in May was down to an inspired rescue act under the tutelage of Neil Harris.

There has not been the incoming transfer activity to expect that the club’s all-time record goalscorer will find it easy to build on that achievement.

“We can go very far,” said Esse, who attracted interest from Hull City at the end of the January transfer window. “But we have got to stay grounded as well. We know it is going to be a lot of hard work, as long as we do that we will get the results.

“I’m looking forward to every game. Every game I want to give my 100 per cent, so any battle I am ready to take on.”

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