Millwall will need to be ‘patient’ as Tottenham loan hit defender works out future plans

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Neil Harris has talked about Millwall needing to show patience this summer as loan hit defender Japhet Tanganga mulls over his future plans.

The 25-year-old centre-back joined the Lions from Tottenham in the January transfer window and has played every minute in the Championship since the middle of February.

Tanganga scored the first goal after Harris returned to SE16 as Millwall head coach – heading home the opener in the 2-1 win at Southampton – as well as netting in the 1-0 victory over Birmingham in March.

The former England U21 international, who did not play a minute at Augsburg in the first half of the campaign, is out of contract this summer but Spurs have an option to activate an extra 12 months.

A section of Millwall supporters were chanting to Tanganga that they wanted him to stay when the players did a lap of appreciation after their win against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, their final home fixture of the campaign.

Harris told the South London Press: “Japhet has started every game for me, so he is obviously going fantastically well.

“You have to be very careful and respectful when you talk about loan players who are contracted to other football clubs. Ultimately Japh is contracted to Spurs and they have a relationship and decisions they have got to make, between themselves, as to where Japhet’s future lies.

“Then you have got Japhet’s thought process, what does he want to do? He is a young man who has had a loan period, he has been abroad in Germany. Where does he see his future lying?

“Then, for us as well, it is about the balance of the squad. Japh has done extremely well.

“I’m a firm believer when players do well on loan that there is hope you work with them again in the future.

“I can name players I have worked with in the past, just for example, guys who are with us now in Jake (Cooper) and Sav (George Saville) – they came to us at the same time as Jed Wallace. They were all loans that we made permanent.

“Like with some of the other guys, we have to maybe be patient with the time they take to make their decisions – clubs and individuals.

“I think we’ll be very close to those conversations with their clubs.”

Harris was nominated for April’s Championship Manager of the Month award.

The Lions started that period with back-to-back losses to Rotherham United and Huddersfield but then posted four successive victories – including a 1-0 Den triumph over Leicester City, who have since sealed the championship.

Foxes manager Enzo Maresca won the award.