MILLWALL boss Gary Rowett will meet with the recruitment department next week to identify potential transfer targets in the January window.
Rowett wants to assess the squad in his first few weeks in the job after taking over from Neil Harris, but has already had discussions with head of recruitment Alex Aldridge.
Millwall’s recruitment department had been building a list of targets to suit what Harris had identified he needed for his squad in the next transfer window.
“I sat down with Alex [Tuesday] morning and we’ll sit down again next week and go through their ideas for what they were trying to strengthen for January and target in terms of positions,” Rowett said. “We might be a little bit light in terms of that competition in the squad.
“Then it will be what we think after the first couple of weeks. We’ll sit down and work together on that.
“We’ve got a good list of players in there and a good database. It will be around do we think some of those are what we want moving forward?
“Of course those lists were prepared and compiled for what Neil wanted, so there might be some tweaks to that.”
Harris preferred a relatively smaller squad in Championship terms. Rowett is likely to work with a similar-sized group, but added it’s an opportunity for players such as Billy Mitchell to force their way in.
“My initial feeling is that it’s a really good group and you don’t want to lose that feeling of togetherness,” Rowett said. “But as we go along there are always going to be one or two areas where we feel we can add something different to give us that flexibility around how we want to play.
“It’s always hard, because if the players who are out injured were back fit you’d have a decent-sized squad. At the moment the squad is fairly tight, but I like working with a smaller squad. It gives you good continuity because there are players out of the team who are never too far out of the team. That’s important.
“It’s only a small squad if some of the under-23s are not ready to step up. We’ll watch the game [against QPR on Tuesday]. There’s the likes of Billy Mitchell and from what everyone’s told me he’s one that’s ready to play a role.
“How big or small that is will depend on him but he’s one that might be ready to step up and add to the squad.
“That’s the idea, that you add two or three from the 23s that could step up and be within the squad. You might want an extra player in this position or that position come January. But I’m also aware that the budget’s not huge.
“We don’t want to lose what the squad has got which is an incredible spirit and togetherness. That’s evident.”
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