Attracting players to MK Dons proved easier than expected despite relegation

Pitching for players to move to MK Dons this summer proved far easier than Liam Sweeting expected following their relegation last season.

With the mood around Stadium MK at one of it’s lowest ebbs, the sporting director initially felt trying to convince the sort of talent the club needed to bounce back was going to be a difficult proposition.

What he found, however, was that players, and indeed potential managers too, were more keen than he expected.

Graham Alexander joined early in June before players began coming through the door, but 11 in total made the switch before Friday’s transfer deadline. And of those 11, eight came from League One or higher.

Sweeting, Dons’ sporting director, said the feeling inside Stadium MK made pitching a move seem a tough sell but what he found was quite the opposite.

“What was interesting was that players said they wanted to come to get promoted,” he said. People talked about their most enjoyable moments in their careers were getting promoted and they wanted to come and do it again.

“We signed a lot of players from League One, and I think that's a good sign.

“We under-sold the club. I think the relegation hurt us so much, and we thought recruiting was going to be a far bigger problem than it was. We're an extremely attractive proposition, with our facilities, the club, the style and expectation.”

That expectation though is now how the club will be judged this season. Having made a strong start to the season, with four wins from six games in League Two, Dons are already one of the front-runners to gain promotion at the first time of asking.

From a recruitment point of view, it leaves Sweeting hunting for several different options depending on the outcome of procedings come the end of April.

He continued: “We have to own the challenge to be competing for promotion this year, and we have to take it all the way. If we're in League One next season, we're in a division where there will be clubs who spend a lot more money than us.

“Then our strategy has to be to try and overachieve, whether that's by developing our own players, by having good young players.

“You're discussing those things all the time, but we can't take our eyes off the short term.”