GARY Rowett is determined to give Millwall’s youngsters the opportunity to feature for the first team in pre-season.
The Lions will start their pre-season preparations on Wednesday, but are yet to announce their first signing of the summer transfer window.
Speaking to NewsAtDen, Rowett explained that the young players who were out on loan last season will be tasked with emulating their predecessors who have since progressed to the first team.
“We’ve got some very good young players coming through.
“Sometimes you can bring signings in too quickly and not give some of those players an opportunity.
“We’ve got people like Alex Mitchell coming back in, people like Isaac Olaofe coming back in, they’ve had very strong seasons last year.
“The challenge for those players is whether they can step up like Tyler Burey, Billy Mitchell and Danny McNamara.
“If they can, they might save us a signing or two.”
The Millwall manager also addressed the future of Zak Lovelace, who’s been linked with a move to beaten Europa League finalists Rangers this summer.
Lovelace, 16, made his Lions debut in a 1-0 win away at Coventry City December 2021, making a further four appearances off the bench after being brought into the first team.
“Zak’s our player,” Rowett stated.
“He’s a player that we think highly of and we’ve tried really hard to show him the pathway to the first team. I think we saw that last year.
“The next step is up to him and the club really, but the club have pushed really hard to try to show him where we see that.”
Photo: Millwall FC