Millwall & Tottenham transfer agreement is already proving to be a disaster: View | OneFootball

If they weren't already, Millwall are now officially in a relegation scrap to stay in the Championship.

The Lions have been a regular in the second tier since their promotion from League One back in 2017, narrowly missing out on the play-offs on the final day of last season following a 4-3 loss to Blackburn Rovers at The Den.

However, they are currently sitting in 21st position in the Championship and nervously looking over their shoulder as they are only four points clear of the relegation zone.

With Millwall’s second half of the season looking like a survival mission, head coach Joe Edwards looked to recruit players that were more than good enough at Championship level, in order to get themselves out of a relegation battle.

To do that, new faces were needed in January, and to shore things up at the back a significant coup was landed in the form of Tottenham Hotspur defender Japhet Tanganga.

Tanganga looked to be a fantastic deal for Millwall

24-year-old Tanganga is predominantly a centre-back, but can also play right-back as well, and is contracted to Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

Tanganga burst onto the scene for Spurs in 2019, showing himself to be a quick, powerful centre-back, showing maturity beyond his years.

However, his career at Tottenham had slowly declined.

After making just four league appearances for Spurs last season, he was sent to spend this season on loan with Augsburg in the German Bundesliga.

But after failing to make a single appearance following his recovery from knee surgery, Tanganga was recalled from mainland Europe and was sent back out on loan for the second half of the season at somewhere a bit more closer to home in South Bermondsey.

A loan move to the Championship for someone of Tanganga’s pedigree, along with working with Joe Edwards once again after working together with England at youth level, looked to be a move that could kick-start Tanganga’s career once again, whilst also helping keep Millwall up.

Tanganga’s loan so far has been disappointing

However, Tanganga’s loan so far has been far from successful.

So far he has made four appearances for the Lions, failing to win any of those, losing three of them. They have also failed to keep a clean sheet when he has been involved.

His last appearance for Millwall came in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat away at Coventry City, where he gave away a penalty after a clumsy tackle in the area on Haji Wright.

Ultimately, the penalty would prove costly, with Wright picking himself up to slot the ball home for the spot to level the contest following Romain Esse's first half opener.

Wright's penalty allowed Coventry back into the game, and the American would then score again just three minutes later to give the Sky Blues the victory - whilst that was Matija Sarkic's poor goalkeeping to let the ball beyond him, Tanganga could have arguably done more to stop the shot given it came on his side.

They weren't the first goals that the Spurs loanee has given away since arriving at Millwall - against Preston North End in late January his short pass gave PNE the chance to counter attack, with that break finished by Brad Potts to level the scoreline, and against Hull in the next match he fell victim to the Tigers' high press, with his pass being intercepted by Anass Zaroury before Jaden Philogene opened the scoring moments later.

After his performance against Coventry, he was dropped to the bench by Edwards for Millwall's 4-0 defeat at the hands of Ipswich Town, which just showed how poor his showings have been so far.

Plenty of Millwall fans have voiced their concerns and displeasure over the performances of Tanganga, in particular after he conceded the penalty against Coventry.

Tanganga's defensive stats do not make good reading either.

He ranks in the bottom six per cent for duels won with 47.4%, and ranks in the bottom 12 per cent for aerial duels won, with 52.4%.

What Millwall need right now is solid and reliable players, ones that will not make silly mistakes when it matters most.

So far, unfortunately for Millwall and Tanganga, he is not proving to be one of those players.