Millwall manager Gary Rowett is keen for 20-year-old defender Hayden Muller to leave the Championship club on loan again next season in order to gain more experience. 

The central defender joined SPFL side St Johnstone last July in what was his first professional loan move but things didn't work out for either the player or the Scottish club – with Muller making just eight appearances before returning in January.

Rowett is in need of defensive reinforcements with Dan Ballard returning to parent club Arsenal but it seems as though the Lions academy product is not deemed ready for Championship level yet.

Speaking to News At Den, the Millwall boss discussed Muller's difficulties last season and indicated the approach the club was likely to take this summer.

He said: "Hayden went away on loan to St Johnstone and it didn’t quite go how he’d planned.

"Sometimes perhaps that’s because the player is not performing to the level they need to.

“He’s a young player and any young player needs to play games. He’s at a point now where a loan for him next season [is most likely] – unless he comes back fantastic in pre-season, which is obviously something he needs to do.

“He’s a good player, a very talented player. Ideally we’ll look for a loan for him next season to see if that’s a good opportunity for him to develop.

“He needs to go and play games, ideally.”

Ballard's departure does mean Muller is one place higher on the pecking order but he still has Shaun Hutchinson, Jake Cooper, Murray Wallace, Ryan Leonard, George Evans and, likely, Alex Mitchell ahead of him.

The Verdict

Muller is clearly highly rated at Millwall – as Rowett's comments and his senior appearances as a teenager show – but you do feel it would be the right call to send him on loan again next term.

Things didn't work out for him north of the border but his spell at St Johnstone will likely prove a good learning experience for him further down the line.

A League Two loan, like the move to Leyton Orient that Mitchell got last term, seems the ideal move.

Given how his fellow Millwall academy product fare with the O's last season, you feel there will be fourth-tier clubs interested in taking Muller, it's just going to be about finding the right fit.