Having finished in the top half of a league in every season since 2005/06, MK Dons find themselves in a rather unusual position going in to this year’s January window. Karl Robinson’s side sit at a lowly 20th place at the halfway point of their debut Championship season, taking 23 points from their 25 games. At the start of the season, Robinson took a lot of risks with his signings, bringing in the likes of Dale Jennings, Sam Gallagher, Cristian Benavente and Sergio Aguza.
The Latest Transfer News From MK Dons
It now appears that the majority of these risks haven’t worked, with Benavente being released from his contract after just six months and Gallagher’s loan being cancelled by his parent club, Southampton. This is added to the departure of Diego Poyet, whose loan was cancelled by West Ham and was immediately sent back out on loan to Charlton, who are in a similar position to the Dons.
With that number of players leaving, and the side struggling at the wrong end of the league, it would only seem logical that the club would bring a fair few players in. However, the latest transfer news from MK Dons is that Robinson has said that he will not spend money for the sake of it, and will only bring players in if he feels they are going to be a good fit.
This being said, the Dons have made their first signing of the window. Jake Forster-Caskey, who had a month loan at the club earlier in the season, has re-joined the side on loan from the rest of the season from high-flying Brighton and Hove Albion. The England Under-21 international is said to be more of an attacking midfielder, but played a more defensive role when on loan previously and looks set to do that again after the departure of Diego Poyet.
As with any transfer window, the rumour mill is in full circulation again, especially at stadium.mk. Robinson has already ruled out any possibility of Patrick Bamford returning on loan, after becoming a real fan favourite in his two previous loan spells at the club. With the search for a striker a real priority in the fans’ eyes, rumours that one of either Will Grigg or Sam Baldock will return have also started spreading, and while these haven’t been ruled out by the manager, both seem extremely unlikely considering Grigg’s position at new club Wigan, and the amount it would cost to bring back Baldock.
The recently poor performances of Antony Kay at centre-back have also fuelled rumours that he will be returning to Barnsley in this window, and as a replacement the Dons would be bringing back Shaun Williams from Millwall after he joined them from Milton Keynes for an undisclosed fee back in 2014. Again, this seems a very unlikely option as Millwall would not want one of their better players to leave the club. This means that if Kay were to be replaced, it would involve Robinson spending money, which seems just as unlikely.
