MILLWALL boss Gary Rowett explained why Besart Topalloj joined National League outfit Dagenham & Redbridge on a 28-day loan.
The defender has been crucial for the Lions’ under-21’s team, captaining Kevin Nugent’s side to a near-flawless start in the Professional Development League this season.
However, the decision was made for him to join the Daggers in his first ever loan spell, giving him a proper taste of competitive, senior football after training with Millwall’s first team over the last few months.
Rowett admitted that it would be better for him to experience this level of football rather than remaining with the under-21’s, but he stressed that the length of the loan would give the club the flexibility to plan his immediate future very carefully.
“Because it was a 28-day loan and because he needs game time, it was a very easy one,” he told NewsAtDen.
“It’s National League level, which we felt was the very minimum we wanted him to go to. We felt it was a good opportunity fairly locally to go and get a month of games. With the international break, there was already a week where he could play without being unavailable for us because we didn’t have a game.
“It’s now a case of, for three weeks, he can go and play some football. It was sold to us that he’d have a really good chance of playing, even in the first game. That’s all you want to know as a parent club that he gets that chance, then it’s up to him to keep the shirt, stay in the team and play five or six games. Then he can either stay or come back, it depends on what we want to do at that point.
“He’s done so well, Bes. It’s his first loan so it’s important that he gets out and plays some men’s football, some competitive football, and we expect him to do really, really well.”
Photo: Millwall FC