Neil Harris explained that the club need to be "patient" with their current crop of exciting youngsters and said that he will allow a few to go out on loan for the first half of the season.

Millwall have deployed a handful of academy prospects in their pre-season friendlies in the last few weeks but the Lions boss is not getting ahead of himself in terms of their development.

Ruben Duncan, Tyler Burey, Harry Ransom and Sam Skeffington have all made their debuts for the Lions in pre-season while Billy Mitchell and George Alexander, both 18, come on against Wigan on the final day of last season.

When asked whether he will be looking to keep them in the under 23’s set up or allow them to go out on loan Harris replied:

“It will be more 23s.

“For some of the boys for people like Billy Mitchell, Sam Skeffington, Harry Ransom who has come from non-league and Tyler Burey who has come from Wimbledon, they were playing academy football last year but while they was in Portugal they got 30 to 60 minutes against Fleetwood and Braga.

“What an opportunity that is.

“I don’t see many of them pushing on in the first team in the first few months of the season, there is some real potential there and for the first time in a few years we are really excited for our under 23s side we have got at the moment.”

“We have to be patient, it is a very young under 23s side. They are good players, we have not seen George Alexander all pre-season because of injury [ankle].

However, despite wanting some to continue their development at Calmont Road, Harris said he is open to allowing some to go and get some non-league experience playing men’s football.

“I see them as an under 23s group who can maybe get some experience out on loan in the Conference South before possibly pushing on in the second half of the season.”