Millwall manager Gary Rowett reacts to Cardiff landing transfer target Kieffer Moore

by Richard Cawley
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Gary Rowett says he knew early on that Millwall were not one of the favourites to land Kieffer Moore.

The Wigan Athletic striker signed a three-year contract at Cardiff City yesterday.

The Lions had matched QPR’s £1.85million bid for the 28-year-old forward before a number of other clubs entered the mix.

Cardiff City quickly emerged as his likely destination with Neil Harris a long-term admirer stretching back to when he was in charge at Millwall. Harris also saw a bid – reported to be £2.3m – rejected by the Latics in January.

“He was one that I felt quite early on that maybe we weren’t at the top of the list – for either the player or maybe financially,” said Lions boss Rowett.

“When you get a feeling for that early on in a deal then I’m not the sort of manager who pushes for players that I can sense aren’t necessarily seeing us as an obvious club to come to at this stage of their career.

“And that’s fine – every player has a different opinion. But that’s the way I work – I want players who are desperate to want to come to the club. I want players who want to come and better themselves.

“Sometimes you get players who maybe fancy a different club for different reasons, which is normal.

“I always felt that [Cardiff] was probably the most obvious one with his Wales connections and his international aspirations for the Euros next year.  That’s probably one of the reasons why as a club we backed off a little bit.

“I could just sense he wasn’t as enthused about coming to us as he maybe could have been elsewhere.

“Once we signed Troy [Parrott] it was less of a priority for us with the other strikers we’ve got in the building.

“I want to add a couple more players to the team and one of which will potentially be in a forward area.”

Rowett has also spelled out that the Lions are not chasing Derby’s Max Lowe – despite repeated speculation the left-sided defender could be a target.

“I’m not quite sure where that is being driven from,” said Rowett. “He is a young player at Derby and they had a lot of them in the team last season. I don’t envisage he is one they’d let out at the minute.

“It’s a bit of a non-story, that.”