Alexander’s odds cut to take over as new head of MK Dons

Graham Alexander has emerged as the new favourite to take over from Mark Jackson at the helm of MK Dons.

The hunt for a successor at Stadium MK has been steady progress thus far, with chairman Pete Winkelman admitting he was happy to take his time, interviewing as many people as he could who ticked the boxes he saw fit.

Alexander has been out of work, managerially, for nearly a year after leaving Motherwell in July 2022 following their Europa Conference League exit to Sligo Rovers.

The former Scunthorpe United, Luton Town and Preston North End defender racked up nearly 1,000 career appearances before heading into the dugouts, initially on a caretaker basis for North End, in December 2011.

His first full-time employment came courtesy of Fleetwood Town, who he guided to promotion to League One in 2014 via the play-offs. He then took Scunthorpe to the League One play-offs in 2016, but they suffered semi-final defeat to Millwall, who went on to the Championship.

More play-offs were to follow for Alexander as he took over at National League side Salford United, taking them to Wembley in 2019, beating AFC Fylde 3-0 in the final to secure the Reds’ EFL status.

He then guided the side to Wembley again for the EFL Trophy final, but was sacked in October 2020 - with Salford sat in fifth in League Two - before the Covid-interrupted final could be played. Club owner Gary Neville described the decision to sack Alexander as a mistake.

He was not out of work for long though, with Motherwell coming calling for his services in January 2021. In his first full season at Fir Park, he took The Well to fifth place in the SPL.

Now installed as favourite to take over at Dons with odds of 1/1, he replaces Michael Appleton (now 6/4) and Danny Cowley (2/1) according to BetVictor.