JED Wallace believes Millwall are very close to having the right mix of players to launch another play-off challenge this season.
Wallace, 26, is back from a four-day training camp in Scotland last week as they aim to build on last season’s eighth-place finish, when just one more win would have seen them finish sixth.
Millwall have so far recruited one new face, striker Troy Parrott on a season-long loan from Tottenham. Wallace has also been impressed with the progress of 19-year-old Billy Mitchell and defender Hayden Muller, 18.
Wallace feels the Lions have good balance, with players aged between 23 and 26, more experienced players such as 30-somethings Alex Pearce, Shaun Williams and Matt Smith, and the youngsters pushing their older team-mates.
Wallace says the club are “making the right noises” about building on two eighth-place finishes in three seasons. Boss Gary Rowett insists none of his regular players are for sale. Two years ago the Lions sold George Saville to Middlesbrough in the opening month of the season, while Boro also flexed their financial muscle to try to recruit Wallace.
That season ended in a close scrape to avoid relegation, with then-manager Neil Harris admitting to problems in the squad.
But Wallace is confident about the future with the current group, under the guidance of Rowett.
“I don’t see too many better centre-halves than Coops [Jake Cooper] and Hutch [Shaun Hutchinson]. I don’t see many better full-backs than Mahlon [Romeo].
“Me, Willo, we’ve played a lot of games now at this level. We lost a couple in Greggs [Lee Gregory] and Moro [Steve Morison] but we’ve had a lot of underrated players in this league. People are starting to realise and starting to talk about a few of our players.
“Some of our players are starting to get the praise they deserve, especially after the season we had. We played a little bit more attractive football at times under this manager. The players coming in are only going to push everyone on.
“The likes of Woodsy [Ryan Woods], Pearcey, Matt Smith have all come in and pushed the group on. We’ve got young players coming through. I still feel we need to add a couple more players but if we can do that then there’s no reason why we can’t at least cement Millwall as a top-half Championship team.
“To finish eighth two seasons out of three shows how good a nucleus of a team we have, not just in terms of players but also the personalities that we have. I don’t think many teams would finish eighth two out of three seasons in the Championship just after coming up from League One.
“It’s a great achievement by everyone.
“You hear all the right noises from Millwall that they want to push on. Hopefully we can bring a couple more players in that can help us do that. Signing Troy is good for us, a really highly-rated young player who’s going to have a huge career. Hopefully he can kick-start that with Millwall.
“We’ve got a group of players at a good age, between 23 and 26 like myself, Coops, Connor [Mahoney], Mahlon, Thommo [Ben Thompson] that know about the club now. Someone like Connor has had a year to settle in so I think this season will be a big one for him.
“We’ve got the experienced lads that bring that knowhow: Willo, Pearcey, Matt Smith. Then the young lads coming through like Billy, Hayden who’s trained with us and been brilliant.
“I think we’re in a good spot and as long as we keep the manager and the nucleus of the squad then I don’t see any reason why we can’t continue to push towards those play-off places.”
Wallace finished with double figures in both goals and assists last season, but he wasn’t fully satisfied with his tally. After scoring ten goals before the end of January, he failed to hit the net for the rest of the season.
Wallace said: “I think I always know what I can do, for me it’s just about doing it on a consistent basis. I did that last season, I improved from the season before and I want to keep doing that this year.
“It counts for nothing now, last season’s finished. I just want to push on and do that again. I was a bit disappointed that towards the end of the season my goals dried up. I probably wasn’t getting into as many good positions as I should have been. This season that’s something I’m going to work on. I want to get back among the goals and hopefully score more than last season.
“We’re looking forward to it, especially after the success we had last season. The lads are hungry again to try and improve on what we’ve started building under the manager since he’s come in. We’ve continued to improve under him and hopefully we can continue that next season.”
Image: Millwall FC