Gary Rowett makes honest admission about the pressure on him at Millwall this season | OneFootball

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Football League World

·22 September 2022

Gary Rowett makes honest admission about the pressure on him at Millwall this season

Article image:Gary Rowett makes honest admission about the pressure on him at Millwall this season

Millwall came into this season with fairly high expectations and were expected to be a team that would be pushing towards the play-offs.

However, whilst the Lions are 13th in the league, their form this season has been fairly inconsistent and they’ve lost five of their opening ten games.


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A 2-1 win against Blackpool at the weekend was a result welcomed by the fans but there were boos at half-time when the score was 1-1 showing there is perhaps some impatience there as well.

Although he doesn’t look at online comments, Rowett has admitted he knows the frustrations are there as he told News at Den: “I’ll be really honest, I don’t look at social media, it’s not something that particularly interests me.

“I’ve been here for three years, so as a manager, I’m pretty well versed on the fact that if you’re not winning lots of games and not scoring lots of goals, then the fans pay their money and they’re entitled to their opinions.

“I can understand their frustration at not being near the top end of the Championship, that’s fine. I’ve always said the same, I don’t think pressure is the right word because there’s people in far more pressured jobs than I am.

“I want to win games for the football club. I want to win games so the fans can feel good about themselves on a weekend. How they choose to react is their right and decision, so it’s not really something I can control.”

Quiz: What nationality are these 18 ex-Millwall players?

1 of 18

Article image:Gary Rowett makes honest admission about the pressure on him at Millwall this season

Shaun Williams?

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However, whilst the boss is aware of some of the comments coming his way, he is keen not to feel the weigh of these and rather carry on doing the best job he can as he said: “I can only judge what I’ve faced so far. That’s three seasons where we’ve finished in the top half and I think the fans have been absolutely brilliant.

“It’s like anything, any manager would say the same. I think I’m about the third longest serving manager in the Championship. I’ve been here for three years, there’ll be some people that want something different, there’ll be some people that will be quite happy with a top-half finish, and there’ll be some in between.

“I can’t really change that. All I can do is work as hard as I can for the football club and for the fans to win games. That’s literally all I focus on and everything else is people’s opinions that I can’t really control, and I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it too much.”

The Verdict:

When you can hear the opinions of some fans being voiced during the game, it’s hard to be ignorant to the fact they exist although it is good for Gary Rowett to know the extent of the mood around him.

That being said, he is also taking the right attitude not being sucked into them or putting too much pressure on himself as a result of some of the more negative opinions.

Many people will have different expectations for Millwall this season, himself included so as long as there is no pressure on him from above at the club then Rowett should be focusing just on getting the right results and trying to take his side forward in a positive position.

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