‘I’m aware of that’ – Millwall boss Edwards clued up on Michael Obefami and unsettled period before joining Burnley

Millwall head coach Joe Edwards has no major concerns over the temperament of new loan signing Michael Obefami.

The Lions landed the Burnley striker on loan for the second half of their Championship campaign earlier this week.

Obefami has previously played for Southampton and Swansea City.

And then Swans boss Russell Martin was quoted as saying the attacker “hadn’t done well enough” when they rejected a bid from the Clarets in the summer of 2022. Obefami ended up going to Burnley in the January transfer window and helped them win promotion to the Premier League.

Martin said at the time: “He had a great end to last season. He’s not given us anywhere near enough this season, he knows my thoughts on that.

“The August thing (Burnley’s transfer interest) rocked him, for sure. Some players can cope better with that than others. It’s very similar to last season’s pattern really which is really frustrating for us.

“We got really praised with the way we dealt with him last season. It was about getting him to a point where he could trust himself, we could trust him to do a certain role in the team and we haven’t quite seen that this season. Everyone expected him to pick up where he left off last year, but football is not linear.

“He’s a young man living a long way from home with different things to deal with. Young men don’t always get it right. We really love Mike as a character, a person, but all we can ask for from any of the lads is 100 per cent, all in, a willingness to run for the team, and we’ve only seen that in glimpses.”

Obefami is in line for his first Millwall minutes against Preston North End on Saturday.

Lions boss Edwards told the South London Press: “When you do your character references you are trying to build as clear a picture as possible – to get an idea of what you’re getting into as opposed to other people helping make your decision for you.

“Sometimes it is a real straightforward experience where you speak to people and get nothing but positive references and positive experiences.

“But when you do get situations like the Russell Martin one – I’m aware of that – you do have to try and see things for what they are and say: ‘How serious is this? Is this a continuous theme over a number of years, at different clubs and with different managers?’ Or can you just apply a bit of context to situations and understand the journey of a young player – they are going to have ups and downs, people will make mistakes.

“Once you have all your information then you just have to decide whether this guy can come into our environment and, in this case, for a five-month period, and can we help get the best out of him? Will his character fit in that short period of time? I have decided Michael will be someone who can be a success here.

“It was something I was aware of and you sort of have to make a judgement call on that. I didn’t feel I’d hear or seen anywhere near enough to make me not want to do it.

“You have to look at what the games are. You can’t always have a 23 or 24-man squad of players who are all exactly the same sort of characters. When you have got a player like Michael who offers a lot of dynamic and explosive qualities on the pitch who can score goals – if they need help off the pitch it is part of the job as well, to get the best out of them off the pitch as well as on it.”

Obefami has played 18 Premier League minutes in the current campaign.

“He’s had some injury issues in the past and it’s a bit like Japh (Tanganga) – there is no question that there is some element of risk with players who have had muscle injuries,” said Edwards. “We’ve got players in our own squad already who have had muscle injuries – you can’t completely write players off because they’ve had stuff in the past.

“But he is like Japh – he is going to require managing. That means in the initial bit of how and when we get him into the team and how we build his minutes up.

“But even on an ongoing basis until the end of the season. We’ll have those periods of quite intense fixture periods that will require some management.

“That kind of it what it is. I’ve said the players that come in this month need to improve and impact us – they have to be good players – and to get good players when you are not big spenders is not easy to just go ‘he’s a great lad, he’s fit and scoring loads of goals, playing lots of minutes’. Typically those sort of players aren’t there in January.

“They kind of come with the same issue as Michael and Japh, they are not fully in rhythm and playing regular game time. We do have to be mindful of that. But we have taken the kind of calculated risks we can get them to where they need to be to a point where they can help us.”

PICTURES: BRIAN TONKS