Promotion is not essential but greatly desired at MK Dons

While the consistent message at MK Dons has been for the want of promotion this season, the club’s owners are putting no extra pressure on to go up this summer.

Fahad Al Ghanim took over at Stadium MK in August on the eve of the new season, but even before his announcement as the new bankroller for the club, the message from within had always been to get out of League Two.

Things have not exactly gone to plan though, with a managerial change early on and the side now sitting 11th in League Two with just two wins in two months. Not completely out of it, Dons could still mount a late charge, needing to make up nine points to the play-off spots and 12 to the automatic places with 18 games to go.

Al Ghanim’s involvement has been felt heavily on the pitch this month with the busy January transfer window, while behind-the-scenes, the club has been trying to get into shape under the watch of CEO Neil Hart, who arrived in September, to run the organisation from the ground.

Ultimately, the success of the football club will be judged on the game itself, Al Ghanim has expressed no additional desires above those already from within to go up this season.

“Our owner when he came in and took over was clear: we don't have to get promoted this year,” said sporting director Liam Sweeting. “But we would all love to.

“To satisfy everyone's ambition, we need to get promoted. To keep hold of everyone and to satisfy everyone and where they want to go, we have to get promoted. The players haven't signed to play for MK Dons in League Two, we don't want them to want to be in League Two.

“Fahad is incredibly in touch with the level, he watched an incredible amount of lower league football. He was constantly in touch with his own opinions, how to structure deals and who we might go for. He allowed us to be quite aggressive.

“We've signed a top transfer in Dan Crowley, we've done a number of deals from clubs in higher leagues, and we were able to transition the squad down to a number we're all happy with, and that was all possible because of him.”

Even with all of Dons’ chopping and changing over the last month to bring eight players in and see 14 players depart, the drive for consistency is the primary target now.

The last few weeks have seen Dons turn in good performance after bad, and then sometimes even worse, culminating in their poor run since the start of December and into the New Year.

With the transfer window closed and the squad set in stone until the end of the campaign, Sweeting believes there is still a chance the season being salvaged, but that it must start with consistency on the pitch.

He said: “We all want more consistent performances, and that's one of the benefits of the window closing. We were keen for that Tuesday morning meeting for everyone to look around the room and have that siege mentality.

“We know this level, you have seen teams can be way out of the picture, much further down than we are, but still get in an automatic spot, or the play-offs. Once the distraction of the window closes, clarity can ensue.

“The winter period in League Two is tough for anyone to be consistent. We're not happy with the run and we think the squad is capable of better. We've got 12 weeks to go, we have to seize this opportunity.

“We don't want to get to the end of the season and see someone else in the top three, or to see someone else at Wembley and think it should have been us. It's on us now, we've got to put a run together to put things right and get us into that mix.”