Jed Wallace on transfer speculation, Millwall’s Christmas party, relishing a new role in away games and his belief that club can achieve in Championship

EXCLUSIVE
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Jed Wallace has his eyes on being at a Premier League club – but that shouldn’t be any cause for concern to Millwall fans.

The 26-year-old has scored eight times and picked up five assists to make him one of the top attacking performers in the Championship.

And recently there has been a transfer link to Aston Villa.

But even before the Lions went on their current seven-game unbeaten run which has taken them within two points of the play-offs, Wallace had already been insisting that the players in Gary Rowett’s squad could do more than just survive at this level.

“In the new year we normally, touch wood, hit the ground running,” said Wallace.

“Pitches get a bit worse, the weather gets a bit worse and you see a few other [opposition] players wearing gloves – then you see us with short sleeves on and willing to fight for every ball.

“Normally we pick up a few good results around Christmas. The manager is constantly telling us what a good team we are because sometimes we’re not as confident as we should be.

“We’ve got a lot of good players – you saw that at the weekend. I don’t think there are many Derby players who would get in our team at the moment – that’s not meant as a disrespect to them. But that’s a club paying big wages and big transfer fees.

“We definitely need a bit more help in January, a few more bodies. Especially with Thommo [Ben Thompson] looking like he might have an injury. We’re going to need a midfielder and a couple of other positions.

“We can certainly push up the table.”

It’s pointed out to Wallace that he is talking like a player who is still going to be here beyond the January transfer window. How does he deal with speculation?

“I’ve had it my whole career. I broke in at Portsmouth and scored three in three games and all of a sudden it was ‘oh, he must be too good for Portsmouth’. I stayed there for three years and learned my trade. It was constantly ‘are you going to leave?’ – eventually I went to Wolves.

“I wasn’t playing there and it was the same ‘are you going to leave?’.

“I feel settled here. I felt settled as soon as I walked through the door. The club have been good to me. I’ve signed three times. The chairman has been good with me. I had a great relationship with Neil [Harris], now I’ve got a great relationship with Gary and the lads.

“It’s a great platform for me to show what I can do and the rest of the lads. There aren’t many better things than pushing up the table with Millwall and hopefully getting in the play-offs.

“If we could do that it would be amazing.

“Do I want to play in the Premier League? Of course I do. I grew up wanting to play in the Premier League. However that happens will be great. If it’s with Millwall it would be amazing. My only focus is on getting as close as possible to that here.

“We’ve got a manager here who wants to be there as well. We’ve got a lot of young players who are very well thought of around football – Mahlon [Romeo] and Coops [Jake Cooper] – and want to play at that level. We’ve got some who have played at that level. It’s the goal for any footballer.

“Everyone in any walk of life wants to get to the top. I’m ambitious. The manager is ambitious. The club is ambitious.”

Middlesbrough tried to sign Wallace and George Saville in August 2018.

Eventually it was only Saville who headed to Teesside, the Lions steadfast that they could not lose two of their marquee performers.

“I was a bit annoyed at some people because I just naturally had a poor start to that season,” said Wallace.

“When I don’t play well it’s often because I try too hard.

“People question your commitment – but you’ve got to judge me on what I’m doing on the pitch. Whether I play good or bad, I’ll always give 100 per cent. No-one can question that. It was just bad timing that happened and then I didn’t have a good four or five games.

“People tried to put two and two together – that was never the case. I’ve always been happy here. My family are settled in the area.”

Wallace is a vibrant character – on and off the pitch. You’d describe him as positive and chirpy, the kind of personality traits you want in a dressing room.

Millwall’s players enjoyed their Christmas party last weekend – made all the better by back-to-back away victories at Bristol City and Derby. The players’ fancy dress was based on Money Heist, which is streamed on Netflix.

“We put five options in a hat,” explained Wallace. “Superheroes, stormtroopers…the normal. I think we went with that one because it was the warmest.

“Last year I went dressed head to toe as Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a full Sweden kit and I was freezing all day. It ruined it. I was so cold. A few of the lads had thermals on underneath this time.

“The year we finished eighth we went 17 matches unbeaten after the Christmas do. Hopefully it has the same effect.

“This year’s was even better – so maybe we’ll go 18, 19 or 20 unbeaten. It’s always good to get together and have a laugh, a giggle. Probably the best bit of the weekend was the atmosphere in the changing room after the [Derby] game.

“We had Pearcey [Alex Pearce] in the middle – he was giving it some. We were in a huddle and pretty much the only item of clothing he had on was one sock.

“He’s a very popular guy. I was laughing my head off. He’s an infectious character, a real leader. The lads love him to bits.”

Wallace has benefited from the 3-5-2 formation which Rowett has used in the successes at Derby, Bristol City and Swansea.

“I love it because I don’t see myself as an out-and-out winger,” he said “I like to be in a position to come inside and outside. That formation allows me to do that – get a bit closer to the goal and defensively I don’t have to come back quite so far.

“I’m a counter-attacking player so on the transition it helps me to be closer to their goal.

“You saw it on Saturday. In that formation you can score within three or four passes. Whereas when we sit in a low block, like we have the last three or four years, it’s been hard to get out sometimes.

“You saw one looped ball [by Shaun Hutchinson], Bradders [Tom Bradshaw] is in there already – because we’re naturally higher up the pitch – and it’s a great touch, a great finish.

“We do have three outstanding centre-halves. It gives the manager the opportunity to play them all at the same time. We look solid.

“The way the lads have bought into the manager means if he said he wanted to play an 8-1-1 or a 7-2-1 then we’d do it. We’re working hard tactically on the training ground. The lads are learning every day.

“When you’re scoring you feel like you can score all the time. The assists is always a grey area –  because you can dribble past eight people, put it on someone’s toe and they can miss from a yard, or you can pass to someone from 30 yards and they smash it in the top corner.

“Whether I play bad or good I’m always involved in a game. That’s why I split opinion sometimes, because my final ball wasn’t right. In my opinion I’m one of the best at getting in those positions – then it’s finding that little bit of quality.”