Neil Harris has emphasised that there will be a number of new faces coming through the doors at The Den this summer as he looks to rebuild prior to the forthcoming season.
Now in his second tenure in charge of the club, Harris fully has the fans’ backing after a strong finish to the 2023/24 season. Returning in February following Joe Edwards’ sacking, the former striker would pick up a very impressive eight wins and two draws during his 13 games in charge.
That would take the Lions from a relegation-threatened side into a mid-table one and they’d end up finishing in a very respectable 13th place, winning each of their final five matches. As a result there’s plenty of hope for next term and rightly so given the squads’ performances under Harris.
It is however set to be a summer of change at the Den, with plenty of signings expected. The 46-year-old hasn’t shied away from the fact that improvements are still needed across the pitch and a plan already seems to be in place.
They don’t seem to be too far away from their first signing of the summer after news broke on Wednesday that Japhet Tanganga had been released by Tottenham Hotspur. The defender excelled during his time with Millwall and the club were rumoured to have an interest in the 25-year-old. Now available on a free transfer, he could well be returning to play for the Lions next season.
That would be just one position that Harris wants to strengthen this summer, with the manager emphasising to the Southwark News that he wants improvements across the pitch.
“We’ve identified players in the five or six positions that we feel we need to strengthen. Obviously we always have players we would like to consider. You get to the stage where they become priority players.
“You are looking at plan A, plan B, plan C and so on. Players have their opinion on what they want to do and so do other clubs.
“As always in the Championship, it is a competitive market.
“It is not just the players in the positions we want to strengthen. We then have to consider that if a player turns around and says to me that for family purposes he wants to go to pastures new then that obviously becomes a different challenge for us as well.
“Out of the blue we might have to find an additional player. Those are the sort of challenges that face any football club’s recruitment department in any given transfer window.”
