Millwall want to sign 20-year-old Chelsea player on loan this month

Add as preferred source on Google

Championship side Millwall are interested in signing Chelsea youngster Alfie Gilchrist.

There’s increasing noise in this January transfer window regarding the future of Chelsea’s 20-year-old defender.

Alfie Gilchrist, who’s a product of the Blues academy, is now linked with a possible temporary switch away from Stamford Bridge. The Evening Standard reports that Gilchrist is attracting interest from unnamed clubs.

The central defender’s played the opening two games of his first-team career in the last week, with senior head coach Mauricio Pochettino using him off the bench in a couple of Premier League matches.

Is he now ready for the first loan spell of his professional career?

Well-respected journalist Simon Phillips has reported via his Substack on Wednesday that Millwall want to sign Gilchrist from Chelsea.

Millwall, whose manager Joe Edwards has a strong Chelsea background, wants to sign the 20-year-old Blues youngster on loan for the rest of the season. He’ll know Gilchrist after managing various Chelsea youth teams, plus he was assistant boss under Frank Lampard at Stamford Bridge.

Phillips wrote: “I understand that Millwall are keen on taking Alfie Gilchrist on loan for the rest of the season. One source suggests this is actually already in the pipeline and Gilchrist could soon be heading to Millwall. However, Chelsea sources state that the club will need to make a decision on whether they will sanction a loan move for Gilchrist or not this month, and at the moment they are unsure if they would allow it.”

Millwall want Alfie Gilchrist

Gilchrist’s only had the briefest tastes of first-team football so far, but we think he’s ready for a first loan spell of his career to go and develop further in senior football.

It looks a no-brainer to let the centre-half join Millwall for the second half of the campaign, but we’ll have to see what the club decides to do.

He’s been cover at right-back recently in the first team, so will the club want to keep him around the main group?