Familiar face returns to MK Dons alongside Warne

A familiar face returns to Stadium MK alongside Paul Warne, someone who helped MK Dons in their most famous moments to date.

Richie Barker will once again be the assistant in the dugouts at MK1 as he follows the new head coach to take over the club.

The Sheffield man was assistant to Karl Robinson, first joining the club in April 2014 following Gary Waddock’s appointment to take up the vacant Oxford United role.

From there, Barker helped Dons to their most successful season ever - beating Manchester United 4-0 in the League Cup in August 2014 before helping them to secure automatic promotion to the Championship.

Sticking alongside Robinson for the next two years, despite his own individual managerial acumen including spells at Bury, Crawley and Portsmouth, Barker is no stranger to the plight Ben Gladwin has just gone through as interim head coach. When Robinson was sacked in 2016, Barker took temporary charge of the side while the manager hunt was going on behind-the-scenes, eventually replaced by Robbie Neilson.

He reunited with Robinson at Charlton Athletic, but left in April 2017 to return to Rotherham United, where he had a hugely successful playing career. There, he would link up with Warne, his ex-Millers team-mate, where they would help Rotherham to three promotions in six years.

When Warne opted for pastures new, taking over at Derby County, Barker followed and helped the Rams to a club-record score of 92 points last season as they secured promotion from League One.

And with Warne now taking over the helm at Stadium MK, Barker once again will take up position alongside him in familiar territory.