Millwall close to announcing deal for 'outstanding' Premier League player

Millwall are said to be close to announcing a deal to sign a new goalkeeper. The Lions are already stepping up their preparations for the new season, which is now just weeks away.

The Lions have three friendlies remaining before they kick off the new season, and there is work that needs to be done when it comes to recruitment. It has been a quiet summer so far, but Alex Neil and the club’s staff are now stepping things up.

Millwall are expected to sign Massimo Luongo after a successful trial period on the back of his release from Ipswich Town, and they are now closing in on a deal to sign Fulham goalkeeper Steven Benda on a season-long loan deal. the 26-year-old goalkeeper has been with Fulham since his 2023 move from Swansea City, and he has largely been a back-up keeper at Craven Cottage, sat behind starting goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

In fact, Benda has never made a league appearance for Fulham, and he is now being granted the opportunity to go out and get regular football less than a year before his contract is set to expire.

The Evening Standard have reported that Benda to Millwall is practically done, while reports elsewhere suggest a medical took place across Thursday and Friday. Benda made his name at Swansea City, impressing under Russell Martin after joining the Swans as a youth player and breaking through in 2022.

"Steven Benda, I love what he's done and how far he's come and what he's done since he's come back into the team," said Martin after one appearance. “The saves were massive. The first one was incredible. But it was not only what he did without the ball in terms of those saves, he wasn't very busy in the second half, but what he did with the ball in the second half was outstanding.

"He's become really important and I'm just really proud of him and pleased for him. He has a brilliant mentality. He's getting better with every game and hopefully he can continue and he has Andy Fisher really supporting and competing with him.”

What Neil has said of Millwall’s recruitment plans

Speaking to Southwark News back in June, Neil said: “I think we’re always looking to strengthen at the first team level,” Neil said last Thursday, June 5. “It’s not just a case of strength in-depth. I think what will happen is there’ll be opportunities in the market that will present themselves, and there’ll be others that we would like to pursue that might not come off for a variety of different reasons, whether it be finances, whether it be going to another team, whether it be, somebody maybe doesn’t want to move, logistics, whatever the case may be.

“But what we’ve had internal discussions about is: we want to come out this window in a stronger position than when we went into it, so that’s really quite clear. Jimmy wants to invest in the club, invest in the squad, and try and improve us, but it’s not as easy as that. We’re not playing Championship Manager where you can just go and say, right, we’ll buy him and thanks you very much we’ll send you over that money. That’s not the way things work in reality.

“So there’s a lot of hard work that goes behind the scenes. The recruitment team, Steve Gallen, who’s obviously leading all that sort of side of things up is, pretty much on the phone 24/7. But, yeah, there’s huge amounts of work going on behind the scenes, and we’re confident that we’ll be in good shape coming to the start of this season.”

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