Millwall battle Norwich City for Aston Villa transfer to fill gaping hole

Millwall are competing with Championship rivals Norwich City and Preston North End over a transfer move for Aston Villa goalkeeper Filip Marschall this summer.

The 22-year-old spent last season on loan at Crewe Alexandra in League Two but has since returned to Villa Park. Even with questions over the future of Emi Martinez, it appears unlikely that the former England youth international will fight for a place in the starting XI.

That could point to another transfer exit and Football League World name the trio of second tier clubs as interested parties. Preston North End have already secured a deal for Leicester City man Daniel Iversen but could look to strengthen further in that position. Meanwhile, Norwich City are in the market for a successor to Angus Gunn with the Scotsman leaving on a free transfer at the end of June.

Millwall compete with Championship rivals over transfer

Millwall are also in the mix and in need of a new shot-stopper to fill a gaping hole left in that position. Liam Roberts has joined Mansfield Town this summer and first choice option Lukas Jensen is set to be sidelined with an Achilles injury. That problem was confirmed in April with Millwall boss Alex Neil confirming that he would miss a ‘fair chunk of next season’.

Marschall played all 46 of Crewe Alexandra’s League Two matches last season and kept 16 clean sheets. He has had previously loan spells at MK Dons and Gateshead. It remains to be seen whether any exit from Villa Park would be on a permanent deal or a loan move.

Neil gave an update on Millwall transfer strategy last week as the club prepares for the 2025/26 season. He told the Southwark News: “I think we’re always looking to strengthen at the first team level. It’s not just a case of strength in-depth.

Millwall ‘on phone 24/7’ to broker transfer moves

“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 thank 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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