Manager Ian Holloway has built on comments he made following the game at the weekend with reference to his frustration with the loan market and how clubs develop players.
Speaking to the official site Ollie explained his views in more detail when it came to loans and the Premier League suggestions for the U21 set up.
‘Before the emergency loan window closed last week, I spent so much time attempting to borrow players from the Premier League and the Championship with no success whatsoever and it makes me wonder what’s going on at the moment.’
The gaffer goes on to say that in the past he’s borrowed and developed players well for their parent clubs and they have gone on to have good Premier League careers and he knows in the past Millwall have had success of their own in that regard, pointing to the deals we did for Harry Kane, Ryan Mason and Andros Townsend in the past.
‘But for some reason the well is drying up and it gives me cause for concern, not just for ourselves but for the future of English football. At the top end, some of the bigger clubs are stacking and racking loads of promising youngsters who stagnate because they are not getting the chance to develop by playing real competitive football. Making huge prize money available for the Under 21 League isn’t going to solve that problem.’
To solve that problem, Holloway suggests a more active programme for Premier League clubs were they regularly loan players out to the Championship for tastes of really competitive football, at a high standard that also gives them the experience of playing in front of thousands of passionate fans so they can understand ‘winning and losing matters because people’s livelihoods depend on it.’
He goes on to say that this was the very reason we have loaned out Fred Onyedinma and Jake Goodman to Wycombe and Wimbledon respectively, because it will give them that experience, it will give them that taste and ultimately show them in some ways the other end of football down the scale where players don’t always get the comfort of relative huge money and long contracts even if you don’t get near the first team and you spend years just training.
‘The experience will be invaluable and I expect them to come back brighter, fresher and battle hardened. The future for us as a club has to be to take in youngsters at eight or nine and teach them how we want to play so there is a seamless transition all the way through the Academy through the Under 21s to the first team.’
The gaffer says that with a number of senior players out of contract at the end of the season, he is looking to move them on some the next batch can come through and play a bigger first team role as they continue their own development, referencing the likes of Jack Powell, Aiden O’Brien, John Marquis, and Sid Nelson in addition to Jake and Fred who are already in the mix.
‘I don’t really want to increasingly have to look abroad, what I’m asking for is some help from those responsible to enable us as a Championship club to stay competitive while bringing on some of the best young talent from the Premier League alongside those coming through our own ranks. If we can do that, everyone’s a winner.’
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Holloway Wants Development Changes
