ZIAN FLEMMING admitted it would have been “incredible” to get a move to the Premier League – but says he’s happy to wait and reach the promised land with Millwall instead.
The Dutchman was at the centre of a dogged transfer pursuit by Burnley to try and prise him away from The Den this summer.
But The Lions managed to hang on to the 25-year-old after he lit up the Championship in his debut season in England.
Flemming proved to be a revelation after signing from Fortuna Sittard in June 2022, registering 15 goals and three assists as the Lions came incredibly close to reaching a play-off spot.
And he said he’s ready to strive for the top six again as he revealed he was never “desperate” to leave Millwall.
Flemming philosophically told our paper: “Well there was that Premier League interest and if you asked me beforehand it obviously would be incredible to play in the Premier League. But in the end it didn’t happen.
“Making a move is part of the game and not making a move is part of the game as well. So yeah, it is what it is. I feel happy here, I felt happy here last year. So there was no desperate need to leave, so that helps. If you’re at a club where you don’t feel happy or whatever, then maybe you really want to force that move. I’m still at Millwall which maybe some people think that’s a negative thing but for me that’s not a negative thing.
“It would have been an incredible move for me if I had gone to the Premier League. Now I haven’t, I’m at Millwall and we’re trying to go to the Premier League together again, which was the plan in the first place anyway.”
The midfielder adds that the disruption any transfer would have potentially brought to his personal life was just as big a factor as the football itself.
He said: “As a player it can be quite hard. It is your career but at the same time it’s also your life and the life of your family and your home situation. And every transfer window, but especially when there’s interest or speculation, your life is uncertain because you don’t know whether or not you’re going to move places again and sort practical things out.
“So, it has an impact on your life 24/7 where you need to think about what might happen or what’s not going to happen but at the same time not think about it and just focus on doing the best you can in training.
“But yeah it can be difficult, but not particularly in a negative way difficult but it is something you need to deal with. ‘Uncertainty’ is probably a good word and not just uncertainty for your career but more how much it affects your whole life. Because you could be living in another city within the next two days basically.”
While he remains an integral part of Gary Rowett’s team, Flemming has yet to scale the incredible heights of last season in the opening five games of this campaign and said he was “not satisfied” so far.
He said: “It’s not as good as we wanted to start. It’s not been terrible either but [I’m] not happy yet with how it going as a team.
“And for myself I am not satisfied. I think I can do better. Obviously, I haven’t scored yet and I prefer to score goals and be important for the team and make us win more games than we’ve done now.”
Optimistic Flemming still believes Millwall can push themselves to the “next step” this season and land a play-off place after only a final day collapse against Blackburn Rovers in May stopped them last time round.
He added: “We’re just working as hard as we can to make that next step and last year was as close as we’ve ever been in the past few years. But first we need to get ourselves in the position where you get close and you get in and around there.
“And then we just want to make that last step into the top six. That hasn’t changed in the last year since I came and that was the plan since I came as well. We just fell short in the last 45 minutes of last season. But nothing has changed really.”