Dons cannot afford any extra bodies in their squad next season

Chairman Pete Winkelman admitted Dons will not have much room in their budget for squad players next season.

With up to 14 players out of contract at the end of June, Russell Martin spoke to the players he would be releasing last week, with others set for the negotiating table.The coronavirus pandemic has hit football clubs in the pocket, with next to no cash-flow coming into the business since March when the last games were played. And with that lack of cash, Winkelman admitted there will be little room for extra baggage in the squad at Stadium MK next season.

"Next season, we cannot carry anything," he said. "We have to make sure the players that we have, have the ability to be fit and available as much as possible. We need to make that squad the very best it can be.

“There are a number of players that will be leaving us that we would rather didn’t leave us, and therefore there will be negotiations going on with them. There will also be players who will be leaving us and not coming back. This is a really tough time because some of these are players that have given us good service and that we’ve got relationships with.

"We have a very good base that we’re building on. The spine of our team is very strong. That gives us a good chance to make sure we’ve got a competitive situation for next year.

“Across football, there will be smaller squads. We had a very, very big squad this year. We will not be repeating it player for player. That will happen across the board. Squad sizes are going to be very relevant – they are even talking about restricting squad sizes. There will be not be the budgets to have some extra players. I think every club will be thinking extra hard about the players they sign.”