Millwall reaction given to Barry Bannan, Sheffield Wednesday return talks - ''I'm not going to be too cut up' | OneFootball

FLW's Millwall pundits share their verdict on a potential departure of Barry Bannan to Sheffield Wednesday this summer

Millwall are looking to make history by earning promotion to the Premier League for the first time in the club's history, having spent over 35 years outside of the English top flight.

Having just missed out on a top-six finish last campaign, Millwall, led by Scottish boss Alex Neil, returned with a vengeance this time around, and are still within a chance of automatic promotion with just a handful of games remaining.

The Lions have been excellent throughout the season, though they will need to be almost faultless between now and the beginning of May to earn automatic promotion, with both Ipswich Town and Middlesbrough battling out for second place, with Coventry City edging closer to becoming champions.

The likes of Femi Azeez, Tristan Crama, and Jake Cooper have been outstanding this year and have each played a large part in their success.

The January window provided the London club with the opportunity to fix areas of weakness and add an extra degree of quality to their ranks, with each of Anthony Patterson, Tom Watson, and Barry Bannan all joining Millwall in the winter.

Bannan joined after over a decade with Sheffield Wednesday, and has added some much-needed experience to the ranks, but his time at The Den could be short-lived with speculation that he could make a return to the Owls this summer emerging.

Barry Bannan could leave Millwall this summer, just six months after joining, with a sensational Sheffield Wednesday return touted

With over 470 appearances across all competitions for Sheffield Wednesday, Bannan made the emotional exit from Hillsborough in January amid financial troubles, with Millwall swooping in for his signature, signing the Scot on an 18-month deal.

However, internal talks at Wednesday over a potential summer return have been spoken about, potentially cutting his stay in Southwark short.

Football League World's Millwall fan pundit, Lucas, has shared their thoughts on the matter and whether they'd be open to allowing Bannan to leave so soon.

Lucas said, "It was one of those signings that was probably a nice bit of experience to have after this season. A lot of the players haven't been in these sorts of situations before, and just that experience around the place must be helpful.

"On the pitch, [he] obviously got the assist for Josh Coburn's winner at Boro. He's been a bit of a luxury in truth when he has played. We tried to play him as a number 10 when he first came in, but that didn't really work.

"In the deeper kind of midfield, I'm not sure he's got the tenacity anymore for what we expect of our midfielders, particularly when we play 4-4-2. We expect our midfielders to cover a lot of ground and be very aggressive in the press and bite in the tackle, and everything that comes with that, your kind of typical normal expectation of what a midfielder is. Maybe a couple of years ago, Bannan would have fit that bill slightly better than he has done. But he's probably been a little bit of a luxury.

"We don't have much height in midfield elsewhere either. So when he plays with one of Mitchell or De Norre, it's an even shorter midfield, which creates its own problems. We play a lot of second balls, and he's not necessarily the quickest to react on that sort of side either. And we haven't really transitioned to being a team that controls the ball more in these crucial games, and all that sort of thing. So, you know, and against low blocks where you'd expect Bannan's abilities might come into real use.

"So, yeah, I'm sure his experience has been useful. Against Boro, he was very good off the bench in fairness and helped us see the game out in that know-how later on and obviously the calmness of the qualities to pick out Coburn in that moment.

"But, if he's not here next season, I'm not going to be too cut up about it. If he helps us go up, brilliant, done a job. If he doesn't help us go up, then we can maybe let him go and finish his career at Sheffield Wednesday without any qualms or any bad nature behind it. So, yeah, I think it's all fine either way."

Barry Bannan could yet help Millwall to a historic promotion amid talks of a Sheffield Wednesday return

With just a handful of games remaining, Millwall's immediate future hangs in the balance.

Automatic promotion would be an almighty achievement for the Lions, who, in comparison to both Ipswich and Middlesbrough, are certainly the lower spenders of the three.

Neil's side will need to see their promotion rivals slip up at least once or twice whilst being almost perfect themselves to secure one of the automatic places; otherwise, it will be the play-offs at best.

However, Neil knows how to get a side through the play-offs, having done so with both Norwich and Sunderland previously, and only a fool would bet against them.

With Bannan on the side, his technical excellence is still more than evident, even if his physical side of the game isn't as good as it once was. Fortunately for the Scot, his physicality has never been something he has relied on.

At 36, Bannan will be aiming to help Millwall to the Premier League, and whatever happens after that is up in the air. It's unlikely he will make the step-up to the top flight at this stage of his career, but with another 12 months on his deal, who knows?