'A miss' - Millwall star gutted by £7m Deadline Day deal with Championship rivals

Millwall midfielder Casper De Norre has lamented the club's deal to allow striker Zian Flemming to join Championship rivals Burnley on Deadline Day in what he has labelled 'a miss' for the Lions.

Flemming put pen to paper on a season-long loan deal at Turf Moor with the recently relegated side holding the option to make that move permanent for £7 million next summer. The Dutchman scored eight goals in all competitions for Millwall last season and was the side's top scorer in the Championship.

Millwall had already seen Kevin Nisbet head out the door on loan to join Aberdeen while Tom Bradshaw picked up a serious injury last week. Those absences, along with the departure of Flemming, put pressure on the London club to complete a late deal for a new forward.

Macaulay Langstaff had already joined from Notts County and the Lions then added Middlesbrough man Josh Coburn on loan along with FK Vojvodina striker Mihailo Ivanovic on a permanent deal.

Despite those signings, De Norre told Southwark News that Flemming would be a big miss for Millwall. He said: “Zian will be a miss on and off the pitch.

"He’s a very good player, a good friend of mine. We live in the same apartment building, we speak the same language, he’s a good team-mate and a good character in the group, so it will be a loss for us.

“He’s a big presence on the pitch and off the pitch, so to lose someone like that is obviously going to have an impact. But, I also feel with the new guys coming in, we have covered his loss to a degree. I think we will be ready with the squad we have for the first part of the season.”

Flemming, who has 23 goals and nine assists to his name over the last two second tier seasons, said it was 'surreal' to have signed for Burnley after a summer of transfer rumours.

He told his new club: “It’s surreal to be here. It’s happened really quickly, I heard about it first yesterday morning and I just wanted to get here.

“I want to be a Premier League player in a Premier League team and with the aims & ambitions that we have here at the Club, we can make that possible.”