Millwall FC may have Leyton Orient transfer envy - Macaulay Langstaff and co need to step up | OneFootball

Aaron Connolly is in superb form for Orient - The Lions may wish they'd kept hold of him in the summer after all.

Aaron Connolly is tearing it up for Leyton Orient in League One after leaving Millwall in the summer, and the Lions may just be wishing they'd kept hold of the forward.

Goals are proving hard to come by for Millwall during the early stages of the 2025/26 season.

Indeed, Alex Neil's side have scored just nine times in as many Championship games so far this term, with Camiel Neghli's two goals currently making him the top scorer.

Meanwhile, the same certainly can't be said for Leyton Orient, who have fired him 20 times in 12 League One games so far this season.

Aaron Connolly is thriving at Leyton Orient after Millwall exit

Aaron Connolly has had an up and down career to say the least.

Having made his first-team debut for Brighton & Hove Albion as a 17-year-old back in 2017, the young Irishman quickly grew his reputation as being one of the hottest prospects emerging from the Seagulls' widely-respected academy system.

The 2019/20 season would be the campaign that Connolly really saw him make a name for himself though, as after having spent a brief loan period in League One with Luton Town the season prior, the striker would make 24 Premier League appearances for Brighton, scoring three goals in the process.

However, he never truly kicked on from there like many thought he would, and after failing to cement a major first-team role over the next 18 months, he embarked on a series of loan moves to Middlesbrough, Venezia and Hull City respectively between January 2022 and June 2023.

A permanent move to Hull would follow in the summer of 2023, but after scoring eight goals in 30 total appearances for the Tigers in the 2023/24 season, he would leave after just one year at the MKM Stadium, signing for Sunderland in the summer of last year.

He'd only last half a season with the Black Cats though, before joining Millwall on a permanent deal in January of this year, but once again, couldn't find the quality and production at The Den, scoring just once in 14 appearances.

As such, he would leave Millwall in the summer and signed a two-year contract with League One outfit Leyton Orient, and this looks to have been an inspired decision by the now-25-year-old attacker.

Connolly has already bagged six goals and two assists in 13 total appearances for the O's, with five of those goals and both of those assists coming in League One.

That's despite the fact that Richie Wellens' side are struggling somewhat in the league, with the team currently loitering in mid-table after a hugely inconsistent start to the campaign following on from their play-off final heartbreak against Charlton last term.

Currently, only Stockport County's Kyle Wootton has more combined goal contributions (eight) than Connolly's seven so far this season.

Interestingly though, Wellens has almost exclusively deployed him through the middle in his Orient team, whereas for Millwall, Neil tended to have him operating from out wide, which was perhaps a mistake by the Lions boss in hindsight given his current O's evidence.

Millwall may be wishing they still had Connolly - Lions need their forwards to start firing

As such, there must be some 'did we make a mistake?' discussions being had among the Millwall hierarchy when looking at Connolly's form for Leyton Orient.

The Lions really pushed the financial boat out this summer in an attempt to break the team out of being the 'almost good enough to make the play-offs' team they've been over the last few years, and finally record a top six finish this season.

A club-record fee worth north of £5m was splashed out to sign striker Josh Coburn from Middlesbrough, Thierno Ballo joined on loan with the option to buy from Austrian side Wolfsberger, whilst starman Mihailo Ivanovic penned a contract extension at The Den too - a story that Football League World first exclusively reported was happening.

That's not forgetting the presence of players such as Macaulay Langstaff, Aidomo Emakhu, Neghli, Femi Azeez, Luke Cundle and Raees Bangura-Williams respectively: Millwall aren't short of attacking options.

However, none of their big guns are firing at this moment in time, in particular the likes of Ivanovic and Coburn, with the former yet to score this season and the latter having bagged just one.

So, Neil and Millwall desperately need their star attacking players to start producing the goods, otherwise they may not have the cutting edge required to crack the play-offs this season either.

It certainly doesn't feel like they'd be worse off with Connolly still in the team at this stage, and in fact, his start to life at Leyton Orient - albeit in a lower division - may just be cause for some transfer regret in Bermondsey.