Millwall boss Gary Rowett has revealed youngster Besart Topalloj could leave the club on-loan this summer.
Topalloj, 21, featured heavily for the Lions in pre-season, but the defender is yet to make a senior appearance for the club. Topalloj is naturally a left-back and he is a former Kosovo U19 international. The young prospect has been on the fringes of the first-team so far this season, sitting on the bench against both Cambridge United and Sheffield United.
Now, speaking to NewsAtDen on Topalloj’s future, Rowett said:
“The plan for any young player is that they have to play games to develop, that’s simple.
“From a club perspective, we obviously have to keep the squad sufficient enough that we can compete in the Championship, so we’re balancing off those two things.
“For any of those players, there’s not a closed answer or an open answer. It depends on what loans are available, on the situation with the squad and the timing of everything. Then we’ll assess that as we go.
“At the moment, he’s an option for us, but we’ll assess that as we go along. They’re all good youngsters, they’ve all got really good futures in the game and we have to make decisions for the squad and for those players’ individual development.”
Common sense prevails…
For any player at 21 years old, game time is crucial to how they develop and progress and the years either side of this age are usually the make or break years.
Topalloj has potential and that could be used at one point in Rowett’s plans this season, but if he was to waste another year without consistent football then it would do more harm than good, making a loan move potentially the best option.
Millwall don’t have too many options on the left-hand side of defence with Scott Malone the only senior natural option, and Murray Wallace filling the gap at times. The lack of depth at left-back for Millwall may be the difference between Topalloj securing his loan spell or staying at The Den, and if he is to stay past the September 1st deadline, he needs to thrive for minutes in the Championship this season.
Millwall look to continue their strong start to the Championship campaign against Norwich City later this evening, with kick off at 8pm.
