Manager Neil Harris has spoken about the ‘tough’ pre season campaign he’s going to challenge the players with, and transfer plans as he continues remoulding the squad.
Both interviews are carried by the official site so beginning with his pre season schedule he explained that he wanted them to be ‘fit and hungry’ come the big kick off as we look to bounce back to the Championship hopefully at the first time of asking with a more youthful ‘Millwall’ style squad.
The players report back to Calmont Road on Thursday June 25 which is slightly earlier compared to most clubs, and pre season training will kick in for ten days before we head to Portugal for our week long training camp in early July.
‘We’re getting quite excited. We’ve been putting pre-season schedules together and fixtures are almost complete. We’re really pleased with that. We’ve been talking to the fitness coaches about the amount of running we are going to do, the gym work and the video work. It’s really key and we have serious thoughts about how important pre-season is for us.’
Harris went on to say that he’s heard manager talk plenty of times about the benefits a pre season gives them and he really sees it for himself now because he knows fresh ideas and tactical changes were difficult to get across in a general sense last season as under his charge the focus had to be the individual upcoming games themselves rather than a rounded ethos or philosophy, so he’s looking forward to the opportunity to work with the squad on that score before our individual opponents come round.
‘The work you can do in that six or seven week period is going to be vital for the whole season. They will work hard. My players will be fit and hungry, and they are going to have a tough pre-season.’
As for the squad make up, with a number of new contracts already signed, and contracts on the table for Jimmy Abdou and Fred Onyedinma, he also admits hard work is ongoing when it comes to fresh targets as well to improve us.
‘We need to restructure the squad from last season. That has been apparent since the close of business at the end of the season where we had to let some players move on. First and foremost it has been about trying to look after the players we’ve got. We want to make sure that the young players we see as the long-term future of the club are tied down to long contracts.’
As for new targets specifically, he went on to add.
‘We identified players at the end of last season. I spoke to the board about them and we are doing due diligence on players to make sure they are of the right character to mould into what we’re trying to achieve. We are in the process of trying to negotiate with players and clubs. It takes time but there are a lot of positive things going on at the moment.’
Part of that sees us continue to be linked with Bradford’s James Hanson, as the media report we have now had a second bid for the striker turned down.
The 27 year old scored eleven times last season and he appears to be our top target.
Bradford chairman Mark Lawn, is quoted as saying.
‘I had a chat with him over there (Andy Ambler presumably) and he moved his bid slightly. But it’s nowhere near the valuation that we put on James. So unless they meet our criteria, James will remain our player.’
Vital Millwall on:
Vital Millwall on:
Harris On Pre Season & Transfer Dealings
