“Whoever Wants Me” - Reported Villa Target Brushes Off Interest Ahead Of The January Window

There was some speculation the other week suggesting Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith had more than a passing interest in Millwall midfielder Jed Wallace.

The 25-year-old versatile midfielder began his career at Portsmouth before making the switch to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but it didn’t really click for him at Molineux and after two reasonably successful loan spells out at The Den, he made the permanent switch back in the summer of 2017.

He now has over 250 career appearances to his name, with a return of just over 50 goals and in 2019/20, whilst predominantly operating on the right of midfield, he’s featured on the left and through the middle. His stats aren’t bad in fairness, seven goals and four assists in 17 matches so far this year and with it believed that he’d be available for around the £10million mark, he does very much strike me as a DS type of signing.

With the speculation ahead of the January transfer window growing, the Birmingham Mail had him quoted the other day speaking about his future, and whilst there’s nothing earth-shattering in his words, he seems the grounded sort, but I can’t say he stood out to me previously really.

“I’ll keep doing what I’m doing now, play every week. I’ve signed here three times, people know how committed I am to Millwall. Whether I play good, bad or indifferent I think the reason the fans respect me is because I leave it all out on the pitch every game. I try my hardest. Whoever wants me or doesn’t want me it isn’t going to change how much effort I put into Millwall. I’ve got a great manager, I’ve got some of my best friends in that changing room. I’m excited to see what we can do in the future. Hopefully we can push on, keep winning games and climb the table.”

Might be worth a punt and might be worth remembering the name, although I’m not sure anyone should use the words ‘great’ in a sentence to do with Gary Rowett.