Tyrone Henry: A Changing Attitude

Well, that was a boring way to end the season... Huge congratulations to all involved with Millwall. It was certainly quite the effort to survive and thankfully luck was on their side in the end.

Another tough season awaits whereby the squad will have to be improved once again to secure another season in the top-flight. Dembele comes with quality and plaudits but - similarly to many of the previous recruits - comes with no Premier League experience. Looking forward to seeing if this is perhaps balanced out in time or whether Henry and the recruitment team continue with this strategy?

29th June 2022

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Millwall have continued their transfer activity by signing Joe Aribo and Luke Woolfenden on the same day.

Aribo, 25, was confirmed first on the club’s Twitter page as he joined from Rangers for an initial £12.5million, rising to £15m dependent on performance clauses.

The Nigerian international has impressed throughout his three-year spell at Ibrox Stadium, making 103 appearances, scoring 16 goals and assisting 16 times under Steven Gerrard.

He is usually deployed as a central midfielder but has been used on the right-wing and in the number 10 position at times throughout his career.

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Woolfenden, 23, was more of a surprising signing, given that his club Ipswich Town were just relegated to League Two last season.

Following his loan spell with Swindon in 2018/19, Woolfenden found himself more involved with the Ipswich first-team upon his return.

In the past two years, he has made 96 appearances in all competitions for the Norfolk outfit.

After Ipswich Town finished rock bottom of League One last season, the centre-back was placed on the transfer list, leading to his £1.1million transfer to the Premier League.

It is unclear whether or not his new manager intends to use him as a first-team option already, or whether he has been brought in to develop to use later.

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In other news surrounding the club’s transfer efforts, Millwall have extended Troy Parrott’s loan spell for a third year from Tottenham Hotspur.

Going out of the door, there has also been plenty of movement:

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James: Honestly, I've been wanting to sign him ever since that preseason game, I still have nightmares about that game and how he tore us apart! Hillson is tiny and you won't be seeing him start unless he's wearing stilts
Scott: Certainly one of the least eventful endings Ultimately, bringing in foreign talent is going to get harder and harder, talented players from the lower leagues is the way to go at this moment in time I think, at least until we advance further in the Premier League with the current strategy.

You took quite a loss on Andre Green in the end, but you made a bit of a profit on Dickie, so it's probably evened itself out. I'm really impressed with the signing of Aribo, as he's someone I've watched a few times irl and thought "this boy looks a bit good." Admittedly, I've never seen Woolfenden before, but his attributes look class for someone that's just been relegated in League One! Who's the Ipswich manager these days!?

Fwiw: Jack Whatmough > all Championship and below CB's

#announceHarrySouttar

Well... never a dull season with Tyrone in charge! What an ending to the season! The incoming players will certainly help out with achieving next season's objectives, particularly Dembele!

Aribo is a tidy signing. He has the attributes to put in a shift albeit with fairly average determination. Hopefully that can improve as supporters will be wanting to see someone with a bit of heart!

Woolfenden enjoys a huge leap up the divisions. He is a player with potential, no doubt, so an understandable piece of recruitment perhaps and low-risk given the fee. Whether he is good enough at the present moment in time is another question. One for the future, I presume.

1st July 2022

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Millwall have completed the £9million transfer of English midfielder Herbie Kane from Barnsley.

The defensive midfielder signed for the South Yorkshire side from his boyhood club Liverpool in a £1.2million transfer in 2020.

In his first season, Kane made 41 appearances in all competitions for Barnsley with 1 goal and 6 assists as his team finished 7th in the Championship.

The following season, Kane stepped up his attacking involvement in the game significantly, with 9 goals and 7 assists from 40 games despite his team’s drop down to 19th from their 7th placed finish the year before.

The 23-year-old’s defensive solidity in sitting just in front of the back four at Barnsley, followed by the evidence of his attacking ability caught the eye of Millwall manager Tyrone Henry.

“He’s an all-rounder, a great passer of the ball from deep, a great defender in stopping attacks before reaching the last line of defence and I think his contributions to goals last season really was the icing on the cake of what you want from a midfield general.” Henry spoke of his new signing today.

The fee is an initial £9million, rising to £11.5million depending on transfer clauses agreed with Barnsley this summer.

Kane will wear the number 4 shirt this season, taking it from its previous holder Ben Pearson who takes the number 23 shirt.

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James: I'm happy with Aribo, I think he's a step up from where we have looked for previous signings so I'm expecting better performances in that regard. As for Woolfenden, a great recommendation from my scouts and I can't wait to see how he does. Ipswich were relegated by my first managerial love Simon Grayson!
Justice: Box office, I'm telling you
Scott: Aribo is very much a quality signing and we've paid a premium to bring him in, expecting him to do well! Woolfenden will actually feature fairly frequently in the first-team. Yes, it's a step up from Ipswich, but I think his attributes are there to see and he can challenge the current back line for their spots.

3rd July 2022

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Millwall have activated the £5.5million release clause for Cádiz’s Anthony Lozano, agreeing a three-year deal at The Den.

The 29-year-old is the only first-team player at Millwall to be born outside of the UK or Ireland, raising speculation about Tyrone Henry’s future transfer policy having signed UK & Irish players so far in his management career, with the exception of Denmark’s Kenneth Zohore’s two loan extensions.

Lozano spent three years at Cádiz, originally in a loan spell from Girona before making a permanent £2.3million switch in 2020.

He fired Cádiz to promotion to the Spanish top-flight in 2019/20, scoring 10 goals in 33 appearances in La Liga SmartBank.

The Honduran adapted to the top division with relative ease, netting 7 in 35 appearances in his first season in La Liga Santander.

Last season was one of Lozano’s better striking seasons despite being played more as a secondary striker, scoring 11 goals in 31 appearances as Cádiz were relegated with only 24 points to show for. This meant that Lozano scored over a third of Cádiz’s 31 goals last season.

Lozano has been successful on the international level too, with 26 goals from 57 caps for the Honduras national team since making his debut against Venezuela aged 18.

With Kenneth Zohore’s loan spell at Millwall expiring two days ago, as well as Tom Bradshaw and Jón Daði Böðvarsson’s release on free transfers, Lozano will battle with Troy Parrott and Dwight Gayle for the starting spots this season.

As Troy Parrott took the number 9 shirt once more, Lozano has been handed the number 19 shirt for the upcoming Premier League season.

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Two tidy signings. Lozano will bring some much needed quality with his experience in La Liga.

5th July 2022

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Millwall have continued their summer expenditure this year by agreeing a guaranteed £15million fee for 16-year-old Kwame Phillips from Fulham.

Phillips, 16, scored 17 goals in 15 for Fulham’s Under 18s outfit last season after graduating in March this year.

Millwall have agreed an initial £7.5million, rising to £15million in guaranteed instalments over the next three years, followed by an additional £10million in performance clauses.

Not much is known about Millwall’s record transfer signing other than his track record at Fulham, as well as being part of the England Under 19s squad that have recently won the EURO U19 Championships in Slovakia.

“It is a lot of outlay for a play so young, we recognise that and factored that into the risk of taking Kwame on board in the first place.

“However, we think that the first-team is in the right place at the moment with regards to quality and that we can start to focus on the long-term advancements at the club, of which Phillips, among others will play a large part in.” Tyrone Henry said in response to questions about the young English striker’s experience.

Upon joining the club, Phillips was advised by Millwall officials to avoid the press and any questions so the youngster was unavailable for comment on his new move to East London.

Phillips has been handed the number 28 shirt for the upcoming season and it is unknown just how much he will be involved in first-team affairs this season.

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Scott: I'd hope so! We now have Parrott, Lozano and Phillips in the pecking order and I do eventually want to give the young kid some minutes when the time is right.

You can understand why Henry would have been keen to bring Kwame to the club. The fee is hefty though and there's bound to be a lot of pressure on those young shoulders whenever he is given minutes to impress. Although I have a suspicion that this could prove to be a shrewd move in time.

Kane looks alright, but having seen him play for Hull a year or so back... bit of a fatty Interesting to see that you've gone abroad, but still stayed somewhat left-field by getting in a Honduran international. Lozano looks quite tidy, and he should be in the prime years of his career too, so that should benefit you.

I really like the look of Kwame, and even though you've paid a HUGE fee for him: it'll be money well spent in the long run.

8th July 2022

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Tahith Chong has finally decided on his footballing future, agreeing a four-year deal with English Premier League outfit Millwall.

The 22-year-old’s contract at Manchester United ran out on the 30th June 2022 after another season spent in the club’s Under 23s team, decided by Ole Gunnar Solskjær in the first-team.

Chong had spent the season before on loan to Bundesliga side Werder Bremen, making 16 appearances throughout his time in Germany, scoring 1 goal.

He made the move to Germany just a season after a few breakthroughs into the first-team at Old Trafford, with 4 appearances in 2018/19, followed up with 12 appearances in all competitions in 2019/20 under Solskjær.

Following the news that the Red Devils would not be extending the Dutch U21 international’s stay in Manchester, a host of clubs immediately flocked to show their interest in the right-winger.

Chong eventually agreed upon Millwall and Tyrone Henry’s promise of consistent first-team football. He signs a £31,000 per week deal at The Den, beating teams like Juventus, Real Sociedad and fellow Premier League rivals Newcastle to the signature.

He takes the number 18 shirt for the upcoming Premier League season as he looks to take on Jed Wallace and Joe Lolley for the starting right wing spot ahead of the club’s first match against Manchester United on 30th July.

In other transfer news surrounding Millwall, midfielder Liam Walsh has completed his one-season exit from the club, joining Championship Norwich City for £4.5million.

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Scott: That's pretty much the only problem aside from not being immediately a first-team player, though I fully expect him to fulfil that role in the squad in the not so distant future.
James: Don't mind players with a bit of timber on them I know, my first-ever transfer from abroad! Scenes!

Excellent business which is made even more apparent when the club were able to fight off some stiff competition for his signature. A player with plenty of flair, Chong will get fans off their seats I'm certain.

Now that is a signing! Wallace on the right, Chong on the left: party in the terraces! Good money was made on the departure of Walsh too, who just couldn't handle the jump from the Championship to the Premier League it seems.

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Our first game of the season lined up against Manchester United following a successful unbeaten preseason campaign.

On our return to league football, Anthony Martial and Bruno Fernandes put us to the sword in a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford.

We followed this up with a game against our dear rivals Leeds United, who were promoted at the first chance last season, winning the Championship title with a Premier League squad more or less.

Despite leading 2-0, we bottled the three points completely as Rodrigo and Daramy recovered a point for Eddie Howe’s team.

We went out very prematurely in the Carabao Cup to Championship outfit Portsmouth as they launched a late comeback with Harness’ 90th minute equaliser to take it to penalties where they beat us 6-5, with Jay Dasilva missing our decisive penalty.

Our first three points of the season came against Bournemouth, in the stadium where the delight of survival occurred just three months before. Troy Parrott’s brace gave us the win.

Parrott continued his goalscoring with another against Burnley, which was cancelled out by Icelandic winger Gudmundsson.

Our final match of the season saw us against John van den Brom’s Everton, thanks to a Joe Lolley brace in response to a very early Calvert-Lewin opener for the blue side of Mersey.

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September contained three consecutive away league games, beginning with an early Mahlon Romeo goal which was quickly replied to by three Wolves goals at Molineux.

We went down to nine men against Chelsea, part of the reason why we were hammered by their main striker Lautaro Martínez who scored a hat-trick for the Blues.

Our last game of the month came against newly promoted Crystal Palace and we just couldn’t seem to break down Flores’ defence as they sneaked one goal past us to take all three points.

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After eight games so far, we find ourselves in a similar position at the same time, last year. We are mid-table, but not comfortably so.

Based on the past three fixtures, we can’t look to be too hopeful either, with not too many points on the board and clearly not much consistency - something that almost sent us careering down to the second tier again.

Manchester United take the lead at the top of the table with a game in hand over pretty much every team in the division. In the meantime, the league looks as expected at this stage, with no doubt a lot more twists and turns to come.

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Scott: Plenty of flair, plenty of hair
James: Millwall has never had it so good! Walsh, yeah, he wasn't a star performer lets say, Aribo was always going to take over his position so it was best to get a fee while we could.