Lions boss Alex Neil revealed that the South London club, who are just a point behind Ipswich in the Championship promotion race, rejected bids from Ipswich that would have represented a club record sale (£11.5m+).
The news was met with surprise from Town fans given that Ipswich have already spent close to £40m on three right-wingers over the previous two summer windows in the form of Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton, £8m), Sindre Walle Egeli (FC Nordsjaelland, £17.5m) and Kasey McAteer (Leicester, £11.5m).
“I wouldn’t usually speak about a player but I know Millwall already have,” said McKenna, when asked why he’d wanted Azeez.
“He has some really different qualities to the players that we have in the building. As I said, we had to use this window to do anything that we could to improve the squad in the way that was possible.
“He was a player that the club thought could take us forward. In terms of bids and stuff like that, I’m not across that and it’s not my area.”
Pressed on why he felt the club needed a fourth right winger to compete alongside Wes Burns, Walle Egeli and McAteer, McKenna replied: “To go back, we sold a right winger for £40 million summer (Omari Hutchinson to Nottingham Foirest for £37.5m).
“That happened really late in the summer. Omari was someone we hoped would be with us for the season and we believed, until after the start of the season, that he would be with us for the season. When that situation changed, and the club made a history-breaking record sale, then we looked to strengthen in that area.
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“It’s not easy to do so at that point of the window. And it’s almost impossible to replace the output that Omari was giving us at that point.
“The club did what they thought was right. I’ve spoken about this before. We brought in Kasey who we know has already played Championship games, think is a really good player and believe will get better and better in the future. He has some qualities that we really love in that right wing position.
“As I’ve said before, just because you spend money on a player, it doesn’t guarantee that they’re going to come and hit the ground running. There’s been many cases of that here and at every football club, whether the player’s been signed for £150 million or £1 million, it doesn’t matter.
“Kasey’s someone that we still believe in and believe will have a good role to play at the club.
“Then we had the opportunity to bring in Sindre Egeli who, for me, is a top, top talent. He’s a versatile forward, not a specialist right winger per se, but a left-footed attacker which we wanted to bring into the building who can contribute and can play on the right wing.
“He’s just turned 19 years of age and never played outside of Scandinavia. I think he’s had a very, very strong first half of the season for the jump that he’s made. But we knew at the time, when you sign a player for that transfer fee, that the perception and the expectation is going to be completely different.
“With the reality of the Championship, you can sign top, top talents on loan. And Middlesbrough, for example, have a top, top young Norwegian talent on loan from Man City (Sverre Nypan) and he’s made maybe a couple of starts in the Championship.
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“Sindre, I think, is a really strong acquisition for the club. He’s got the potential to go on to be a really top player, has really contributed strongly in the first half of the season. But we know and we knew that it would be really hard to perform to a super consistent level with the amount of games and with the rigours of the Championship. We’ve seen him develop and we believe that he’s really going to continue to develop.
“In just Sindre and Kasey alone, it’s a side of the pitch that we’re really strong in. The club’s set up really well for the future in that position. Of course, there are some other situations, Chieo (Ogbene) with a long-term injury where we felt he needed games (on loan at Sheffield United) and Wes (Burns) coming back from a cruciate – you don’t know how he’s going to be, but has made a good return.
“So there’s always lots and lots of things in the mix. Every decision that has been made at club has been for the right reasons. I think we’ve brought some real talented young footballers to the club.
“The reason why we have money to invest in a right winger is because of the bravery, the support of our ownership group to go and sign an Omari Hutchinson on loan to then go and spend a big transfer fee on Omari Hutchinson because of our belief that we can improve and develop players.
“We’ve brought in some more to the football club now and we continue to work with them and push them and believe in them and believe that they’ll have an impact and a positive future for the club.”