Summer shake-up expected at MK Dons

With as many as nine first team players out of contract at the end of the season, Neilson is likely to breathe new life into the squad, with some familiar names likely to be leaving in May.For the manager though, there can be little room for sentiment as he looks to improve on a team languishing in midtable obscurity to give them a fighting chance of winning promotion next season.

He said: "It's natural, that's football, that's life. I know what I need to do. At this stage, we need to know where we finish in the league because it makes a big difference to what we plan for next year.

"There's always a shake-up in the summer. Teams at our level generally don't keep players for long periods of time. At this level, there aren't four year contracts, but one or two years deals. It means players can move on to bigger things, new players can come in and improve the team."

While the season still has two months remaining, Neilson confirmed he is already close to wrapping up deals to bring in players in the summer, knowing he needs a strong squad at the start of pre-season training, rather than having a shell of a squad and having to rush to get deals done before kick off in August.

He added: "From day one, we focused on the January market, and now we're concentrating on the summer market. We're making headway already, speaking to people and trying to tie people up in pre-contracts.

"I don't want to come in on the first day of pre-season with 10 people here. We need to make sure we have a good squad. It won't be a complete squad, but a squad good enough of 15, 16 first team players that we can build a team around."

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