“The issues were out of our control”: Jules on MK Dons’ problems last season

Zak Jules felt many of MK Dons issues last season were out of the players’ hands, contributing to their relegation to League Two.

The 26-year-old signed for Exeter City in League One on Friday afternoon, leaving Stadium MK after two-and-a-half years and more than 70 appearances.

A plethora of problems culminated in Dons’ drop from a point off automatic promotion in 2022 to relegation 12 months later, and not all of them, according to Jules, were down to the players.

In signing for the Grecians, he explained: “Unfortunately, there were things as a player which were out of our control. It didn't go as planned and I feel like that showed on the pitch. If you keep that rut going, it gets harder and harder to shift.

“It was tough. Being at a club like MK, the target was never to stay in League One but to push and to see how high we could finish. The season prior, we missed out on promotion so we expected to push on again.

“It was my first experience in that situation, and I want it to be my last. But you have to try and take positives out of it.”

Exeter finished 14th last season, having struggled to adapt to life in the third tier early on in the season, but recovered excellently to finish midtable.

And for Jules, he wants to become a regular part of another push for bigger and better at St James Park.

“The standard was set here last season,” he continued. “Looking at the table, I saw Exeter were in the top 10 for a bit and they looked keen on maintaining that. The target has to be improvement here.

“The manager is ambitious, he wants to improve on what the team has done previously.

“I want to get in the team and make myself a regular.”