Millwall FC tipped to take big Macaulay Langstaff action - It hasn't "worked out" | OneFootball

Football League World's Millwall fan pundit discussed Macaulay Langstaff's future with the club

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…

It would be a fair assessment to say that Macaulay Langstaff's time at Millwall is yet to deliver the desired impact following his hotly-anticipated arrival from Notts County last summer.

Langstaff had generated a sensational goalscoring reputation over the previous two campaigns with Notts County, helping the Magpies back into the Football League.

A mightily-impressive return of 71 goals from just 97 appearances, including 28 across the 2023/24 League Two campaign, prompted Millwall to part with an initial £700,000 sum last July.

However, Langstaff has struggled to adapt to the rigors of Championship football thus far. From 34 matches - 14 of which were starts - the striker recorded just one goal and two assists, both coming within a week of each other all the way back in September.

Injuries have played a part too, and the impressive goalscoring form of Josh Coburn and Mihailo Ivanovic in particular hardly helped Langstaff, but he simply has not offered enough when handed the opportunity and has seen himself descend in Alex Neil's pecking order following Neil Harris' departure.

Macaulay Langstaff tipped for Millwall FC exit

FLW asked our Lions fan pundit, Lucas Ball, whether he anticipates Langstaff remaining at Millwall come the start of the 2025/26 season.

Lucas believes that Langstaff lacks the quality to provide the goods at Championship level, and has tipped him to leave the club this summer with a drop down to either League One or League Two.

"Honestly no with Macaulay Langstaff," Lucas told FLW.

"He can't afford to have another season like this at 28, where he's not making that many starts. Admittedly, he missed a chunk of the season through injury and couldn't be involved for a while for that reason, but in terms of quality, he hasn't looked like he has the quality to step up.

"One goal and two assists for a striker in a team that was pushing for the play-offs at the end of the season isn't good enough, although his involvement under Alex Neil was more limited than under Neil Harris.

"His link-up play at times looked okay, but in terms of the intelligence of playing at this level, the timing of runs, the hold-up play, those things all looked like they needed work. The Championship is a hard league to learn, the natural level has to be a bit higher.

"Unfortunately for him, I just don't think it's worked out. Hopefully we can recoup some of the money we paid for him and he can go and have another decent season in League Two or League One.

"Obviously it would be unsurprising to see Notts County come back in for him, but it's a case of whether he would want to drop down to League Two.

"I think he would be a serviceable frontman in League One, so it remains to be seen who might be interested in him."

Macaulay Langstaff's contract situation and estimated wage at Millwall FC

Millwall operate on a tight wage structure, which means they seldom have to worry all too much about underperforming players proving costly in that particular department. Langstaff is not a leading earner, and is estimated by Capology to be collecting a weekly wage of £7,500.

He did, however, only pen a two-year contract to join from the Magpies, and Millwall will likely be eager to cut their losses and collect some form of a fee for his services in order to prevent losing him for nothing at all next summer.

Getting Langstaff off the books could potentially open up some wriggle room on the club's wage bill, and a departure simply makes sense for all parties.