'˜We'll go again in January' says Cullen after Dons miss transfer targets

Despite bringing in 10 players, and breaking their transfer record to sign Kieran Agard, Dons failed to bring in a striker on deadline day as deals fell beneath them.

Executive Director Andrew Cullen admitted his frustrations with Wednesday’s transfer deadline day, having seen at least three strikers slip through the club’s fingers for one reason or another, but says Karl Robinson has built a promising squad and hopes to add to it in January.

“We wanted to strengthen all over the park and give the most options for Karl,” said Mr Cullen. “We haven’t been able to do that, but we’re excited by the options we’ve got.

“We feel we’ve got a strong squad, but wherever you are in life, you want to improve.

“We are where we are, but we want to look forward to the next few months to see where we can go, and we’ll go again in January.

“This was the biggest investment in League 1 since I’ve been here. We set our ambitions high and we set a budget to go out and achieve those ambitions.

“People ask why we left things until the last day, but we were working on a deal to get Ryan Colclough from the beginning of May. But Wigan told us to leave it until they’d worked out a replacement. We had to be patient to get that deal across the line, and we did after some excellent work from Karl and the Wigan chairman.

“There were other players we wanted, and our aim was to get another striker in but those deals fell through - not necessarily on deadline day but three or four days before hand. That’s no-one’s fault.

“We had deals agreed, both clubs had accepted, the paper work was on the table and players had agreed to come. But for one reason or another, others got involved and vetoed it. It certainly left a sour taste in our mouth.”

But while the window itself saw 10 players come in, some sections of fans are already predicting the worst for the rest of the season.

While Mr Cullen accepts their frustrations, he feels there are positives to be taken from the window.

He added: “There will always be a range of views from the fans. We have spent a record sum of money on Kieran Agard and beat off competition to do that.

“We’re pleased with the business we’ve done over the window, but we understand the frustrations of how deadline day panned out.”