‘He was always someone who could handle the ball’ – Millwall academy boss on Romain Esse’s journey to the Premier League
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
No matter what Romain Esse goes on to achieve in his career, the fact he underwent his footballing upbringing at Millwall will always mean that he is a source of immense pride in SE16.
The 19-year-old ended his decade-long association with the Lions on Saturday when he signed for Crystal Palace in a deal that could eventually be worth £14.5million.
Esse, raised in Peckham and Bermondsey, has signed a contract with the Eagles until 2030 and now will get the chance to try and create the same excitement he sparked in Championship matches in the far more testing environment of the Premier League.
In an ideal world for Millwall fans the transfer, a club record, would not have happened quite yet.
But Millwall have been stung in losing plenty of their prize talent before they stepped up to first-team level – Drako Gyabi, Samuel Edozie and Zak Lovelace some relatively recent examples.
Esse played 66 times for the Lions and scored seven goals with his vibrant performances, particularly this season, ensuring that
Palace sporting director Dougie Freedman was a regular and highly interested spectator in the Den directors’ box.
Esse had trained with Chelsea before signing for Millwall at the age of nine, the point at which youngsters can make a decision on signing for a club.
“Rom has always been a technical player,” Lions academy director Scott Fitzgerald told the South London Press. “He was someone who could always handle the ball, no matter what age or environment he was in.
“Rom was a very late maturer. He was a dot for years. I still think there is much more to come from him physically.
“We used to have conversations on a regular basis at the academy about potentially playing Romain down a year. Based off the fact that players have to have success and failure in development. Because in his own age group, at the time, he couldn’t physically do what we knew he could do – so we wanted to maybe drop him down a year and let him have some success.
“But him and his dad were adamant they didn’t want to do that.
“In all my time here, Romain would have been one of the only guys we spoke about doing that to. Really unusual. We tend to play players up a level. What he was showing in his own age group was just glimpses – and we wanted to see more than glimpses.
Esse did bypass U21 football to move from U18 level into the first-team fold. He made his debut in December 2022 against Watford.
His first goal came on the opening day of last season, a 1-0 victory at Middlesbrough.
Those that know him well talk about his technical skills being “a joke”.
“There is an inherent ability in a player like Rom but there is also the repetition – training – that obviously enhances it,” said Fitzgerald. “You are born with elements of it and then it is how you bring it out.
“Romain always had that drive. A lot of players who have that type of technical ability think that is enough – they don’t need to do the other bits.
“He loves doing the other bits, the stuff without the ball, I’ve never seen him go: ‘No, I don’t need to do that’. He relishes the hard work.
“I spoke to him a little while ago about that side of it, not having the ball so often, and it will stand him in good stead for the next bit.
“Every level you step up it becomes that bit more tactical and that bit more physical. The game is quicker.
“The fact he had the opportunity to train so early with the first-team, and the tactical detail that those first-team staff do, certainly brought him on quicker than probably we all thought.”
Esse is likely to be in Palace’s squad for Sunday’s home derby against Brentford.
The indications are that the Eagles will gradually integrate him into their set-up.
“I’m guessing that he won’t be going there as a starter,” said Fitzgerald. “There are plenty of top-class players there, so he has got to get there, prove himself, show every day in training what he has shown us, wait for his opportunity and take it.
“All footballers have to do that – you can never settle. You are always striving for the next bit and this is the next bit for Rom. He has got to do what he has done, which is work hard every single day. Show the application.
“One of the things I loved about Rom, coming through the age groups, is that he always had a smile on his face.
“No matter what happened he would be smiling if he had a ball at his feet. I could be moaning at him one day about something, which happened quite a lot as a scholar, and he’d have a big grin on his face, just because he loved being at the club. I loved that about him. I miss seeing that big grin about.”
Esse’s playing ceiling feels high. The danger with any prospect is that they are plucked away by a Premier League club.
Millwall experienced that earlier this season when defender Josh Stephenson, 18, turned down a professional deal to sign a four-year contract at Brentford.
“For me the holy grail of the academy and the football club is getting a boy in, at nine years old, seeing them come right the way through and play in our first team,” said Fitzgerald, who has been with the Lions for nearly two decades.
“Then to be in the Premier League, if it is not with us then with someone else. It means our fans get to see him and appreciate him. All our players and parents get to see him and show there is a pathway at our club – not that you have to leave us at 14 for another club and think that is the pathway for you.
“We have proved you can do that pathway here with us – right the way through. When I came in, what seems a lifetime ago, it has stuck with me. Rom is the first person we have really done that with.
“That should be such a proud moment, obviously for myself but all the staff. And the staff that were here 10 years ago, who are no longer with us and moved on to different things. They have all played a part in that development of Rom.”
Millwall are based in a hotbed for producing top-level footballers.
So many youngsters who signed for Charlton will have looked at the story of Ademola Lookman, now excelling at Atalanta.
There will be others using Esse’s progression as a source of inspiration and motivation.
So does it help the Lions fend off stern competition for players?
“Talk is cheap – we can talk about pathways and opportunities – but now with Romain we have showed it,” said Fitzgerald.
“Players have left us to go to clubs at a younger age and also the other way around – Billy Mitchell and Danny McNamara were about 14. This is the big one where it is right from the word go. If I was a parent or player, I’d be looking at that and thinking ‘I want a piece of that’.
“I’ve know Rom so long – seeing him as a baby and then running out in the first-team. Seeing how he performed this season and to get the move – it speaks volumes for him and the family.
“We talk about hard work all the time and what we should do but ultimately it is the player and whether he commits or not.
“He has committed – so total respect to him and the family.”
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