Millwall still in contract talks with midfield duo as they announce retained and released list

Millwall have confirmed they are in contract talks with George Saville and George Honeyman as well as activating contract extension options for Joe Bryan and Billy Mitchell.

The Lions have released their retained and released list this afternoon.

Northern Ireland international Saville is in his fourth stay with the Lions, including two previous loan spells, having returned to the club from Middlesbrough in July 2021.

The 31-year-old Camberley-born midfielder appeared in all but one of the club’s Championship matches last season as the Lions finished two points shy of the play-offs.

Honeyman, 30, who signed for Millwall from Hull City in June 2022, made 40 appearances in the league last season.

Millwall have opted to extend the terms of midfielder Mitchell, who joined at U15 level. He has made 155 appearances for the first team. The 24-year-old made 19 appearances in an injury-disrupted campaign, the last of which came in the 4-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers in April.

The club has also taken up an option on 31-year-old full-back Joe Bryan, who joined from Fulham on a free transfer in July 2023, following a season on loan in Ligue 1 with Nice. Bryan featured in 39 of Millwall’s Championship games last season.

Millwall have confirmed the departure of fans’ favourite Shaun Hutchinson after nine years and 233 appearances.

It was Hutchinson’s headed winner against Bristol Rovers on the final day of the 2016-17 season which took the Lions into their successful League One play-off campaign. The centre-back, who formed a formidable partnership with Jake Cooper, was named in the Championship Team of the Year in the 2019-20 season.

Wingers Duncan Watmore and Aaron Connolly will be leaving when their contracts expire next month, along with Scottish defender Murray Wallace.

Former England U21 international Watmore, 31, joined the Lions from Middlesbrough in January 2023. He featured in 26 Championship games for the club last season but had not played since a 5-1 loss at Plymouth in February.

Republic of Ireland international Connolly, who had scored his first goal for Sunderland at The Den in November, moved to Bermondsey in mid January, initially impressing and scoring a goal after just 30 seconds in a 2-1 home win over QPR on February 1. That was to prove his only league goal in a Lions shirt, however, and the 25-year-old has been released.

Millwall are also in contract talks with 26-year-old youth team graduate Danny McNamara, 30-year-old reserve goalkeeper Liam Roberts, and 20-year-old shot-stopper and youth team product George Evans.

Middlesbrough forward Josh Coburn, Chelsea left-back Zak Sturge, Cardiff City holding midfielder Ryan Wintle, and Liverpool left-back Calum Scanlon will return to their parent clubs and Millwall will welcome back forward Kevin Nisbet from his loan spell with Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen and fellow striker Adam Mayor and defender Kamarl Grant from League Two Bromley.

Grant is one of seven U21 players who will be retained for another year, along with Frankie Baker, Jaiden Celestine-Charles, Ben Drake, Jet Dyer, Jack Howland and Rafiq Lamptey. U18 players George Beaumont, Elias Mansor, Harry Taylor, Oliver Whitby and Dean Forbes have been offered new deals.

U21s Chin Okoli, Sha’mar Lawson, Kyle Smith, Henry Hearn, Tom Leahy, Oliver Evans, Kavalli Heywood, Ethan Wady, Niino Adom-Malaki and Dillon Addai have been released, along with under-18s Abdulahi Abdulazeez, Elidon O’Boyle and Luke Ashburn.

Millwall boss gives update on George Honeyman, Femi Azeez

ALEX Neil was unsure how serious George Honeyman and Femi Azeez’s injuries were following Millwall’s 2-0 loss to Leeds United earlier tonight.

Honeyman was withdrawn in the 28th minute with the game still in the balance at 1-0.

Azeez, who was substituted halfway through the Lions’ 2-0 loss to Bristol City last week with a hamstring issue, went down in the 79th minute and was replaced by Aaron Connolly, with Leeds scoring their second only six minutes later to tie up the three points.

“George, we’ll need to scan, I think it might be his groin,” Neil said. “Femi, I think it’s his hamstring but I’m not sure how bad it is because he has had a couple of issues with his hamstring hence the reason why he didn’t start on Saturday as well.”

“It was disappointing, losing George. I think we needed his running power, we needed his know-how in terms of triggering the press and different bits like that and then we lost him.

“We need to make an early sub, which is not ideal. I think at that point Leeds were probably on top in the game so I tried to stiffen up the middle of the pitch to give ourselves an opportunity later in the game so we can then go and try and go for that a little bit more.

“So it’s disappointing to lose George. The reason I kept a change, I had to change George first half and then made a couple of early substitutions in the second half and then I had to hold onto my third one if somebody does get injured and Femi did. So Femi then went down, had to then change him. Those are a couple bits we needed to sort of manage.”