No rush for more additions before MK Dons' Croatia training camp

While the transfer window remains open until September, MK Dons are racing against another deadline to get deals done - Sunday.

The squad are set to fly to Croatia for a pre-season training camp and a friendly game against NK Istra this weekend, following Friday night’s game against Maidenhead United.

Having brought in Charlie Goode, Cohen Bramall and Dan Barlaser so far this window, head coach Paul Warne admitted he would love to have another face signed up to join the side ahead of their trip to central Europe but this early stage of the summer, he is not hugely concerned whether it happens yet or not.

“I’m not really bothered to be honest,” he said. “If I can get a player up front in before the weekend, great. If not, I get told he’s not available, we go for the next one. We’ve got a good squad, I’m pretty breezy at this point in pre-season.

“I could sign all the players I wanted if I was willing to pay the 20 per cent time tax, if you will. Every team could do it. But then you’d overspend, the gap between the lowest and highest earners become colossal, you might get prima donnas, you just have to get the right people at the right price.

“The pre-season trip is as much to do with the players bonding as much as it is training. They’re all pretty fit by the time we go anyway, and the game we play there comes a couple of weeks before the Croatian season starts so I’m well-aware it will be a tough game. I’d like to go stronger, but I also like seeing my players suffer sometimes.”

With the market being relatively quiet so far, Warne admitted the World Cup across the Atlantic is delaying things throughout the pyramid, and that he does not expect things to fully kick into gear until the tournament is done in a couple of weeks.

He said: “The World Cup does kill it a bit. It used to be that you would get the best frees in May if you were competitive, then in late June you’d get the lads who realised everyone is now going back to training, then in the first few weeks of July you’d start to see the ones who you didn’t know about.

“That’s all been kicked down the road by a couple of weeks. The three we’ve got have improved the group but I still think we need three or four more.

“There’s no point filling your squad now knowing there is someone better down the line. Some very good players will still become available. We’re not far from having a very competitive first 11, but the job is always to make it more competitive.”