Assistant head coach Richie Barker spoke about the benefits of a hard pre-season camp

The hard physical work put in during pre-season will pay dividends at the end of the season for MK Dons.

Rather than feeling the benefits as soon as the season starts and into the first couple of months, assistant head coach Richie Barker believes the intense pre-season campaign last term showed during Dons’ impressive run-in last season as they went on a tear after Christmas, losing just three games in 2026 en route to automatic promotion.

The squad are currently in Croatia for a week-long camp, training three times a day and laying the foundations for their fitness to carry them into the new campaign and beyond.

Barker said: “People have this idea that a good pre-season means you win the first few games of the season or you’re fit in September. Our view is that it bears fruit in March, April and you could see that in our season last season.

“There are loads of elements to pre-season, and one of them it to physically bear fruit later in the season.

“It’s like three weeks work condensed into one.”

Last season, the club’s camp in Spain proved pivotal as a bonding exercise to galvanise the side during their promotion push.

Barker continued: “Looking back 12 months, we were new, a lot of the players were knew, no-one really knew us so we had to put in a lot of new information, technical and tactical, but also what we expect from them. Now, we’ve got a lot more lads in there who know what to expect from us.

“Pre-season is still very physical, so it will be three sessions a day. We have them here, they can’t go anywhere and it helps having the first sessions at 7am!

“It really helps the new players integrate into the group, and those who joined at Christmas as well, the likes of Ben Wiles and Curtis Nelson.

“If we cast our minds back again, half of the group here came with us last season, so there is plenty of time for people to get to know each other.”