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Breaking: Millwall’s Leader Contemplates the Elusiveness of Early Deals and the Enigma of Unseen Talent
NEIL Harris has explained the various factors behind why so few clubs get their business done early in the summer transfer window.
The mantra among managers is often about getting all their transfers completed before the opening day of pre-season but that is rarely the case.
Millwall’s players return to training in two weeks by which time it is very unlikely the club will have concluded their summer business.
Harris believes the changing nature of the Championship is part of the reason why many clubs have been slow out of the blocks.
He told NewsAtDen: “As the league grows and we’re talking about record attendances again this season, the Championship has cemented itself as the fifth-most powerful league in the world, it follows the Premier League more and more each year in the sense of there’s so few players that get released from Championship clubs nowadays, meaning there’s fewer out-of-contract players which are obviously the easiest [deals] to do.
“Sometimes out of contract players can be hugely in demand, which obviously makes it harder for us to compete against a lot of so-called bigger teams in the Championship. And there’s players where if they’re not in demand, they’re not in demand for a reason.
“It’s a bit of a niche market when it comes to out-of-contract players that are available. And the players who are under contract is different as there’s no rush to let players go.
“Everybody has to fill teams during the course of pre-season. There’s a lot of new managers in the Championship this year who will want to look at their players and players are still off on holiday.
“There’s loads of reasons why things can be a little bit slower in the market in the Championship.”
Harris also acknowledged that staff changes in the recruitment department was a factor behind Millwall being slow out of the blocks, with Kevin Nisbet already signed this time last year.
He said: “You look at us as a club and we’ve changed the hierarchy structure and brought in a new director of football who needs time to integrate with the recruitment department and work with the board to get deals done.
“That’s why we’ve maybe been a little bit slower than in the past – certainly in past windows under myself – and I understand that and being extremely patient. But like all managers I’d love to have the four or five players that we need on day one of pre-season, but it was never going to be likely in this window.”
