'Lallana joining doesn't intimidate me, it inspires me' - Molumby confident time is right to step up with Brighton

Brighton's Irish starlet Jayson Molumby can't choose a winner between Brentford and Fulham, having played against both clubs while on loan at Millwall this season (PA)

Kevin Palmer Twitter

August 02 2020 08:00 PM

As Brighton confirmed the signing of Adam Lallana from Liverpool on Monday, Republic of Ireland Under-21 captain Jayson Molumby could have been forgiven for fearing his first-team chances had evaporated.

After proving his worth with a series of sparkling performances during a season-long loan spell with Championship side Millwall, the 20-year-old, who hails from Cappoquin in Waterford, has set his sights on making his mark with parent club Brighton in the Premier League when the new campaign gets underway next month.

While Lallana’s arrival appears to have complicated his ambition to break into the Seagulls line-up, Molumby has a different mindset as he looks to make an impression on Seagulls boss Graham Potter (below) and realise his dream of becoming a star in England’s top flight.

Graham Potter was delighted to secure another season in the top flight (Mike Hewitt/NMC Pool/PA)

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday World, Liverpool fan Molumby sees nothing but positives in the arrival of a player who got his hands on the Champions League and Premier League trophies over the last year.

“I’m excited to see Adam Lallana joining the club and don’t see it as a reason why I can’t get into the first team,” begins the midfielder, who played 40 times for Millwall last season.

“You want to play with top players and learn from them and I have a chance in the pre-season games to prove that I can play with someone of Lallana’s quality.

“It doesn’t intimidate me, it inspires me. He has just won everything there is to win with Liverpool and I’d love to have a chance to play at Brighton.

“I feel ready to play in the Premier League now and looking at the midfielders we have, I’d like to think I have something a bit different for the manager to think about. My job when we get back to pre-season training on August 17th is to show him that I’m ready.”

Molumby spoke to the Sunday World back in March just days before football was shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the game serving up a very different vibe when it returned from its unwanted hibernation in June.

Painful

Football played behind closed doors took some getting used to and Molumby admits the empty stands at Millwall’s home stadium of The Den made for a painful final few weeks of the season.

“It was so frustrating the way things worked out,” he continues. “We had just beaten Nottingham Forest 3-0 away from home before the lockdown and it felt like we were starting to get into our stride and hit a bit of form at the right time in the season, but everything was very different when we returned in June.

“When I did the interview with you in March, we were talking about Millwall’s hopes of getting into the play-offs and what might happen for the rest of the season, and then a few days later, everything came to a standstill.

“Initially, we were told there would be a three-week break in matches as they waited to see how the virus was going to pan out, so I went straight home to Ireland and chilled out with my family to wait and see what might happen.

“Then it kept getting worse and worse and I ended up spending six weeks in Ireland. The whole thing was just a weird experience.

“I was living on my own in England and I didn’t have too many concerns for my own health. I just wanted to get back to playing football.

“I can understand guys who had young families and maybe older relatives living with them would be concerned about playing again, but I wanted to get back as quickly as possible and it was a nightmare the way everything panned out.

“When we came back, it was strange and playing in the empty stadiums was crap. It was horrible, terrible.

“I didn’t enjoy it at all. As a kid growing up, you dream about playing in England in front of big crowds and thriving on the pressure, but all of that was taken away when we started playing again in June and it was wasn’t great at all.

“It affected clubs like Millwall more than others because we get great support from our home fans and the intimidation factor was gone without the fans.

“It felt like a training match in many ways and I feel it had an impact on us just missing out on the play-offs.”

Troy Parrott has completed a loan move to Millwall

Millwall finished just two points outside of the play-off places and will have a new Irish heartbeat in their side next season, with Tottenham’s teenage striker Troy Parrott having yesterday signed a one-year loan deal with the Lions.

“It is a great move for him and he is ready for that,” says Molumby, who has been in contact with Parrott in recent weeks to gauge his thoughts on the move.

“Troy is so confident on the pitch and I think he could do really well in the Championship – and Millwall is a great club for a loan move.

“He’s only 18, so to get a chance to join a top-ten Championship club at that age is a fantastic opportunity. I’m convinced he will do really well there. It’s a special club.

Hype

“There is a lot of hype around Troy – and rightly so. He is an unbelievable talent for his age and when I have played with him, he does things that make you stand back.

“The sooner he can get out and play regular first-team football, the better it will be for him – 100 per cent, he has got a huge career ahead of him.”

Molumby speaks with a maturity that confirms he is a leader of Ireland’s next generation of stars and, as Stephen Kenny’s U-21 captain, he appears to be ready to make the leap to senior international football, especially as one of his mentors is the former Dundalk manager.

To achieve his dream of performing on the international stage, he needs to make his mark at Brighton. If he can form a dynamic midfield pairing with Lallana next season, a player who looks certain to be a big piece of Ireland’s bright future could just become their present.