{"id":608446,"date":"2022-01-21T12:21:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T17:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=608446"},"modified":"2022-01-21T12:25:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T17:25:10","slug":"mk-dons-premier-league-connor-wickham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/21\/mk-dons-premier-league-connor-wickham\/","title":{"rendered":"MK Dons Sign Former Premier League Striker Connor Wickham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/20\/mk-dons-dawson-devoy-bohemians\/\" target=\"_self\">MK Dons<\/a> have completed the signing of former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/10\/michael-olise-premier-league-star\/\" target=\"_self\">Crystal Palace<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/21\/sunderland-sign-patrick-roberts\/\" target=\"_self\">Sunderland<\/a> striker Connor Wickham.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old was a free agent after leaving Preston earlier in this window having made just two appearances for the Lilywhites.<\/p>\n<p>Wickham, who joins the club on a deal until the end of the season, has had Premier League experience with both Sunderland and Crystal Palace, while also featuring for Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston North End and Leeds United in his career.<\/p>\n<h2>MK Dons Sign Free Agent Connor Wickham<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Connor Wickham is a Don \u270d\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DonDeal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#DonDeal<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EvCy0ahi6B\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/EvCy0ahi6B<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Milton Keynes Dons (@MKDonsFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MKDonsFC\/status\/1484571502175473670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 21, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;A Great Opportunity&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p>On the move, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mkdons.com\/news\/2022\/january\/mk-dons-complete-connor-wickham-capture\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wickham said<\/a>: \u201cThis is a great opportunity for me and one I couldn\u2019t say no to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a great dressing room here and the manager has a good idea for where he wants to go with this team. I want to be a part of that journey and hopefully there\u2019s an exciting few months to come for all of us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe and the Gaffer go way back \u2013 he was one of my first coaches \u2013 and I have a few other connections here but, ultimately, this a chance for me to join a great club with huge potential and hopefully I can become a good addition to our push in the second half of the season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>A Different Option Up Front<\/h3>\n<p>The Dons currently possess Mo Eisa and Troy Parrott who can play in the forward position. The latter, though, has often played a deeper role under head coach Liam Manning, operating behind the striker.<\/p>\n<p>With the departure of Max Watters back to Cardiff City after his loan deal was cut short, the Dons were in need of some more options up front, and Wickham certainly provides something different.<\/p>\n<p>While Eisa has the pace to get in behind defences, he&#8217;s not a physically imposing forward, meaning that against certain defences he can become ineffective.<\/p>\n<p>Wickham, though, standing at 6&#8217;3&#8243;, will be able to hold play up more and allow the likes of Parrott and Scott Twine time to come forward and join the attack.<\/p>\n<p>This is Wickham&#8217;s first drop down into League One. With 18 games of the season remaining, he has the chance to earn himself a shot back in the Championship &#8211; whether that be with the Dons or at a new club.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"q1vI7x2zTApVD-Q41Yzziw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1194559902\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'q1vI7x2zTApVD-Q41Yzziw',sig:'k-9sstBHPucYWwM6XB3MqkgBBtTRhkh1KJ0_n-O3DNg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1194559902',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MK Dons have completed the signing of former Crystal Palace and Sunderland striker Connor Wickham. The 28-year-old was a free agent after leaving Preston earlier in this window having made just two appearances for the Lilywhites. Wickham, who joins the club on a deal until the end of the season, has had Premier League experience [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":608452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,34,30,28],"tags":[3756],"class_list":["post-608446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-league12","category-news","category-transfers","tag-connor-wickham"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}