Crystal Palace v Millwall FA Cup 5th round Saturday 1st March 2025.
No 'Dogs Abuse' for Romain Esse please he's not Jed Wallace.
Football is a very opinion based subject so as many people who agree with this article will disagree with it, but I do ask, when those of us who are lucky enough to travel to Selhurst Park to watch Millwall play Palace this weekend, please do not give Romain Esse the ‘dogs abuse’ I have heard some call for.
The reason I say this is as follows. When Jed Wallace left Millwall for West Brom, a club that at the time of writing is only 6 points above Millwall, it was clear, in my opinion that it was a predominately money motivated move. Sure West Brom probably had a stronger chance of getting promoted to the premier league at the time but for Jed to say it was for the chance to play in the top flight was not the whole story. For a player to maximise his earning capacity toward the end of his career is understandable though - so fair play to him. But he committed the cardinal sin of over-celebrating his assist for a West Brom goal on his return to the Den in October 2022 in front of the Cold Blow Lane End - and also with a toe curling CR7 pose :
He has received stick ever since which is a sad way for such a hero at The Den to be remembered. If only he had shown some respect at the time and just jogged back to the halfway line with the minimum of dramatics. To be fair though when we tragically lost John Berylson senior a few months later he was seen paying his respects by signing the book of condolence in the 1885 lounge, so his moral compass is very sound I would argue.
Romain Esse however - if he plays for Crystal Palace on 1st March and unless he over-celebrates if he or Palace score, should not in my opinion, receive the same treatment as Jed. My reasoning is as follows :
Romain has been at Millwall since he was 9, he is truly ‘one of our own’ and comes from South London. Last August amidst interest from a variety of suitors, after a string of great performances in our first team and a goal for England U23s, he signed a long term contract with Millwall. Romain did not have to do this and in may ways this reduced his attractiveness to clubs because he had set quite a high ‘reserve price’ for his services. Compare this to Jed, we all remember the period when his contract ran out and he remained on our books as a free agent, out of contract. In the end after a tortuous few months of ‘will he won’t he etc.,’ he left and all the club gained financially was a temporary reduction in its wage bill. The significance of this is obvious in terms of the financial advantage this would bring Millwall if any club wanted Romain, because the contract he signed had a release clause of £14.5 million pounds which would have to be paid if they wanted him. Thank you to Romain for signing this because he has gone on to play in the prem’ (great to see) and the funds from his transfer and that of Zian Flemming earler in the season have been re-invested in 8 signings during the January transfer window and bought in the likes of Neghli, Ivanovic, Cundle, Connolly, Camra, Azeez etc.,
We have a new manager who has been able to pull on the money and our prospects now look good. So I wish Romain well and personally I won’t give him ‘dogs abuse’ I just wish he hadn’t gone to Palace, but on the positives at least it wasn’t West Ham.
COME ON YOU LIONS