Millwall's Japhet Tanganga exit fear raised as "real bargain" claim is made | OneFootball

FLW's Millwall fan pundit has been speaking on the future of Lions defender Japhet Tanganga.

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Millwall's chances of retaining the services of star defender Japhet Tanganga have taken a significant dent after a critical transfer clause in his contract has been revealed.

Journalist Richard Cawley revealed via his X account on 4 June that the Lions centre-back has a release clause of around £1.2m.

However, it's believed that only Premier League clubs will be able to activate that clause.

Top flight outfit Wolverhampton Wanderers were heavily linked with a move for the 26-year-old during the winter transfer window, and they along with a host of Premier League sides will surely have been alerted to this revelation with this summer in mind.

"You'd think..." - Claim made on Japhet Tanganga's Millwall future

We asked our Millwall fan pundit, Lucas Ball: 'Reports suggest that Japhet Tanganga has a £1.2m release clause for Premier League clubs. Do you think someone's going to come in and pay that sooner rather than later? He has been linked with Wolves in recent months...someone is going to get a bargain, aren't they?'

Ball said: "Tanganga was really strong for us during his six months on loan, and then last season.

"He's proven himself to be clearly one of the best defenders in the Championship, and his injury issues look to be behind him. So, there's a real positive there for someone potentially to come in and look at.

"He seems relatively settled. Obviously, his agent and him have asked for that (release clause) in the deal because he wants to get back playing in the top flight at some stage.

"It's a deal that probably meant that we got him over other clubs that were interested last summer, and if we hadn't included it, he probably wouldn't have signed. We've had a really good 18 months out of him at least.

"Hopefully he stays, obviously. He's a huge player in our backline. But, we've signed Tristan Crama to come in as a centre-back predominantly. I know he played right-back for a lot of last season, but he was signed as a centre-back initially.

"It was only because of injuries that he ended up moving to full-back. So, I'm confident in the club's recruitment at the moment. Since Steve Gallen (director of football), generally, we've certainly had more hits than misses.

"That's not to say you're going to get every single signing right. Of course you're not. But, you'd think that if clubs are looking at Tanganga, they're going to have a real bargain on their hands.

"Obviously Premier League clubs are under a bit more pressure to meet the homegrown quota, he obviously fits in with that as well. So at that price, you'd think teams would probably be looking and considering making a bid."

Premier League club will surely take chance on Tanaganga at release clause price

After spending an injury-plagued first few years of his senior career as a Tottenham player, Tanganga has finally been able to show just how classy a player he is with Millwall this past season.

The former England youth international has always been a defender held in high regard during his time with Spurs, which is evident from the fact he's still been able to make 50 first-team appearances for the club, which has included numerous outings in the Premier League and across various European competitions.

At only 26, Tanganga is now firmly in the prime years of his career, and should he be able to stay fit, he could well be on course to get back to playing top flight football in the near future.

As far as Premier League clubs are concerned, £1.2m is somewhat of a drop in the ocean, and for that fee they could well land a top centre-back with plenty of tread left on his tyres given his injury history.