Neil Harris addresses Millwall 'thickos' comment as Leeds United chase Premier League striker

It was a disappointing farewell for Millwall boss Neil Harris on Saturday, with the Lions suffering defeat to Middlesbrough in the departing boss’s final game. Elsewhere, QPR continued their revival with a draw against Bristol City, now 18th in the table and steadily moving away from the bottom three.

Attention now turns to next weekend, although for Millwall there is the more pressing issue of finding a new manager. Here we round up the latest news and transfer rumours surrounding the second tier.

Harris on ‘tiff’ with fans

Departing Millwall boss Harris has addressed his ‘tiff’ with the fans after he called a section of the support ‘thickos’. He said after the Middlesbrough defeat: “It’s not the first tiff I’ve had with Millwall fans over the years! As a player and a coach,” he said, laughing off the incident. “People called it a tiff and there were maybe things in the press, but it’s not really. There’s certainly no anger or impact felt longer term on that, for me or the supporters.

“It was a beautiful moment for us, it was a shame it was 300 miles from home and there weren’t a few more here, but I don’t need that. I don’t need that because it’s been a privilege to lead this football club for so long. It’s a brilliant football club, it’s a unique football club and I’ll be back as a supporter in the future seeing everybody. It was very emotional in the changing room for me afterwards, and a lot of the players that have been with me for a long time. And my staff as well. All I can do is wish the club well, make sure that the fans who have supported me relentlessly over the years support the new regime that comes in.”

Cifuentes wants help

QPR boss Marti Cifuentes says he still ‘needs help’ despite improving results. “I’m extremely proud of the guys and the way they work,” he told West London Sport. “But the reality is that football is so ruthless we need to keep improving and hopefully everybody inside the club understands that.

“Now we look at the table and look at the results and everybody might think ‘It’s going to be fine, Marti, it’s fantastic’, (but) we need help, we need to keep improving. We’re going to have a bad trend again – hopefully not as bad as it was at the beginning of the season – and we need to keep improving at the club.

“I’m not satisfied about the (lack of) possession we had today. I’m not satisfied about the amount of injuries and I’m not satisfied about the things we need to improve. Now comes a very important part of the season and we need to keep improving.”

Barry interest

Leeds United are said to be pushing for a deal to sign Aston Villa starlet Louie Barry in the January window. According to the Sunday Mirror, Villa are set to recall Barry from his current loan spell with Stockport County, where he has scored 15 times in just 21 appearances.

Villa are then set to send Barry back out on loan at a higher level, and Leeds are said to be interested, while Burnley, Middlesbrough and Sunderland are also said to be interested.