Millwall boss explains why League One moves could be tricky to conclude

Millwall look set to listen to offers for some of their squad – but manager Gary Rowett reckons that League One clubs will struggle to pay a big enough percentage of salaries to make loan deals worthwhile.

Iceland striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson was linked with Portsmouth and AFC Wimbledon over the weekend.

We broke the news earlier in the summer that the Lions were ready to part with the former Reading man.

And Portsmouth have continually been linked in recent seasons with bringing Ben Thompson back to the South Coast. The attacking midfielder faces increased competition for game time after the South London club re-signed George Saville at the end of last week.

“There has been a lot of speculation about League One clubs for some of our players, which is natural,” Rowett told the South London Press. “But it is difficult for League One clubs, at this moment in time, to spend a decent amount of wages to secure a Championship player on a Championship contract.

“I’m not so bothered about all of those things. I’m more bothered about strengthening our team. If there is a player who hasn’t played much and wants to go and play regular football it is only right to give them that opportunity, if it works for all parties.

“That’s becoming more difficult for players on decent contracts. It’s not great business, for example, to let someone out on 25 per cent of their money – at that point it makes more sense to keep them around and use them yourselves when you need to.

“You want to see happy players and you want to see players playing and performing at their maximum, you can’t always do that at the same club with 25 players. That’s just the simple numbers game, most clubs will have that issue this season.

“Clubs won’t make enquiries to me. They will make enquiries to Harvey [Bussell, head of recruitment] or Steve [Kavanagh, chief executive]. I’ll be really honest, I tend to let them get on with it and do what they need to do.

“If they come to me with something that is interesting then we’ll sit down as a group. Otherwise all you hear all week is noise when you’re trying to focus on the team, the players and how we work. At the moment we’re working with everybody who is in the building as if they are here for the whole season. That will only change if I get told there is an opportunity for someone that we’ll look at.”