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Manager makes bullish statement on Leeds United loanees after recent penalties claim

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It seems the threat of financial penalties for not playing Leeds United loan duo Charlie Cresswell and Jamie Shackleton will not impact the plans of Millwall manager Gary Rowett.

That’s after the 48-year-old insisted that he will not select his starting lineups, based on the demands of any particular loan agreements.

Leeds and Millwall did some significant business in the summer transfer window, with both Cresswell and Shackleton joining the Championship side on loan.

Since then, both have had big parts to play at The Den, with Cresswell scoring three goals and providing one assist in eight league games, while Shackleton has played in all ten league matches this season.

It was recently reported by The Athletic that Cresswell’s loan deal includes an agreement that will force Millwall to pay financial penalties to Leeds, if the centre back does not play the amount of games his parent club want.

Now however, it seems that will not have an impact on Rowett’s thinking, when it comes to selecting his Millwall team.

Speaking about those claims of potential penalties if game time is not met, the Millwall boss told the South London Press: “I’m not involved in the details and those sort of discussions. Is it a financial penalty?

“Sometimes you pay a loan fee and every time a player starts that loan fee reduces.

“There is a way of encouraging game time for young loan players. But from my perspective, Cressy and Shacks– any players that come from Premier League clubs on loan – they are part of what we’re doing.

“We try and treat them exactly the same as any other player that is in our group. I wouldn’t pick the team based on any financial penalties.

“If you’re a Premier League club loaning to a Championship club, you want your player to play at least a decent amount of minutes. It’s probably more a case of that.”

This does feel like the right approach for Rowett to take over the selection of the likes of Cresswell and Shackleton.

Ultimately, his main priority has to be getting results for Millwall on the pitch, rather than doing meeting financial demands, meaning he must only play the two Leeds loanees when the time is right.

Indeed, you imagine that Millwall will have made sure that they are able to afford those penalties should they come into play, before agreeing to them as part of the deal.

Even so, when you consider the way the pair have begun life at Millwall, it doesn’t seem as though there should be concerns about them not getting the game time needed to avoid those penalties.

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UCLan Sports Journalism graduate. Have been working for Leeds All Over since summer 2020, and can only be found writing on Football League World.