BART Bialkowski said he would welcome new competition for his number one shirt next season.
Millwall are in talks to sign George Long, 27, from Hull City and that free transfer would go through on July 1. Long was part of Sheffield United’s 2016-17 League One promotion-winning squad and played 45 times for the Tigers in the Championship in 2019-20.
The Lions released Frank Fielding this summer and have offered Ryan Sandford and Joe Wright new deals, but they aren’t ready to challenge Bialkoswki for a first-team place and could be loaned out next season.
Bialkowski has played every minute of league action since coming on for the injured Fielding on the opening day of the 2019-20 season. The former Ipswich stopper kept a personal best 16 clean sheets in a league season in 2019-20 and went one better last campaign.
“Listen, competition is always good,” Bialkowski said. “It can only improve you. Every club I‘ve been at there have been two or three good players in every position.
“You need that because sometimes you can feel too comfortable. You need someone to push you in training so you cannot relax, you cannot be too comfortable.
“That’s going to take you nowhere.
“Frankie has been absolutely top drawer, he’s a great professional.
“I‘m sure the gaffer is looking for someone to compete with me. We’ll see what’s going to happen but competition is always good.”
Lions boss Rowett is evolving his side to be more comfortable in possession. That means more work with his feet for Bialkowski, and he is looking forward to putting the new ideas into practise in pre-season.
Millwall’s 2020-21 player of the year added: “We’ve been practising loads of things on the training pitch. Playing games is a different story.
“I‘m sure the gaffer will have a couple of new ideas over pre-season and in friendly games we’re going to try and do something new.
“It’s always nice to keep the ball. If you have the ball the opposition don’t have chances to score.
“Obviously we need to improve on a number of things. We’ve got good players who can keep the ball very well.”
Image: Millwall FC