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The Inside Line: MK Dons (substituted) 24/08/2013

This new series on The Exiled Robin threatened to come a cropper in its early days with a fixture against Franchise FC, as I wasn't prepared to seek an opinion on a club created in such a fashion. 

Not that I doubt that those supporters who follow them do so in the same irrational and desperate manner we all do with our clubs, but the way they came about, with the corresponding direct negative impact on another community-based club, manes they are - ironically enough - disenfranchised from the football community as a whole. 

Anyway, as a result I decided to instead focus on their predecessors, a club reborn and one that has found it's way back into the football league for a second time.

Chris Lines, (NOT the ex-Gas player, as far as I know!) writes his own blog and occasionally offers his view for the fabulous Two Unfortunates, as well as spending his weekends following the fortunes of AFC Wimbledon. You can follow Chris on Twitter @NarrowtheAngle:


How is the spirit at the club and the optimism for this season, bearing in mind last season's oh-so-near miss of relegation back to the Conference? 
I think it's fair to say, after breathing a huge sigh of relief on the final day last season when we stayed up, there is a collective resolve to have a really ordinary, safe, boring, midtable season this year. Four points from our first two games meant morale was refreshingly high. But an abysmal performance at Exeter at the weekend has plunged us into a certain amount of uncertainty again. Our nerves can't take another relegation battle. We hope for better performances in the next few weeks or fingernails will be rapidly disappearing once more. On paper, our squad looks like a midtable squad. Let's hope they play like one too.

Neal Ardley – one of the last Crazy Gang members – is your gaffer. Is that an important, perhaps necessary, link with the history of the original club, or maybe a deadweight story that could do with being set aside?
Generally I'm not one for sentimentality when it comes to key staff members at the club (though I might make an exception for Chris Perry one day). But make no mistake, Wimbledon were definitely going down last season before Ardley and his assistant Neil Cox came in. That the club survived is squarely down to them and their astute signings. So I'm happy with Ardley – but his connections with the old Wimbledon FC are a nice bonus but nothing more. That said, there was something quite pleasing about Dave Bassett sitting in on the interview panel when the club sought a new manager last year. We felt the club would make a solid appointment with him giving candidates a proper grilling at interview.

Some may not know the story behind Glenn Mulcaire...are you able to summarise briefly for the readers please?
Your readers will doubtless know Mulcaire as the phone-hacking private investigator in the News Of The World scandal. But, curiously, he was also an early AFC Wimbledon player and scored our first ever goal. If you haven't seen it, it was an absolute rocket and well worth a look on YouTube. I suppose the club are quite embarrassed that he was ever anything to do with us now, but it's a good bit of trivia.
Low crowds were synonymous with Wimbledon FC and whilst your 3,000 average is good at League Two level, will this apparent ceiling always be an issue for you as you try to progress up the leagues?
Ahem, 4,000 average I think you'll find... but yes, we are under no illusions about the size of our club. But I do think that, with the club potentially back in a new stadium in their home borough of Merton (possibly even spitting distance from the old Plough Lane) by the next decade, we would draw bigger crowds than the old Wimbledon FC did at Plough Lane. Southwest London is a fairly affluent place, but not everyone wants to pay the prices they charge to watch Chelsea. There's a good catchment area and we will attract new fans if we keep progressing. I think Wimbledon can be a club of comparable size to Brentford if they were in a new stadium and playing in a higher league than League Two. Anything beyond that is probably too ambitious for a fan-owned club. Portsmouth are perhaps an exception as their supporter base is so large. If it happens that Wimbledon reach giddier heights, great, but we shouldn't be pinning our hopes on it.

Last season saw an immensely notable cup draw with yourselves drawing MK Dons at their stadium in the F.A. Cup Second Round and being edged out by a late winning goal. If possible, can you explain what that meant to fans of AFC Wimbledon?
It meant different things to different people. The sense I got from fans, message boards, social media, etc was that about 60% of fans just wanted to get the game over with and would rather not acknowledge the existence of the franchise in Milton Keynes, while around 40% were desperate to get one over on a club they see as an enemy. I can sympathise with both viewpoints, but I generally side with the school of thought that they should just be completely ignored. Not hated, just left to their own devices. I applaud your website's stance in that respect. If the football world just ignores them and refuses to deal with them, then eventually they'll get their comeuppance.

Ultimately, what is the end objective for fans of AFC Wimbledon for your own club, and for MK Dons (if anything)?
All we want is a league club that is enjoyable to support and which never becomes the plaything of a rich businessman who could jeopardise the club's future. Success is nice, but having a team to support at all must always be the most important thing. It's as simple as that. For the next few seasons we'll be content to simply retain our league status. Anything on top of that would be an unexpected surprise given the club's meagre budget (one of the smallest in League Two).

I don't know what the objective is for MK Dons, I don't really pay attention. The sad thing is that they apparently have staff doing great work in the local community. Imagine how proud the locals would be of their club if they'd earned their league place. The relocation of Wimbledon to Milton Keynes coincided with the demise of a local non-league club, Milton Keynes City FC. If MK chairman Pete Winkelman had spent the money on them that he's spent on MK Dons to date, they would almost certainly have made it into the league by now. And with a community of supporters with a young average age getting behind a local club that had battled up the divisions, what a fairytale story they could have written. You wonder if Winkelman ever regrets not going down that route. You'd certainly be interviewing an MK fan this week, rather than me, if he had.

Do you keep an eye out for their results in the way we might for Bristol Rovers results?
No. I couldn't begin to tell you how they've started this season. A long-range screamer from Jason Banton (he's a very good player) caught my eye on The Football League Show at the weekend, but I don't recall who they were playing or what the score was. I'd struggle to name a player on their books aside from Banton. Is Luke Chadwick still there?

And finally, even though our teams are yet to face each other, you do know Rovers fairly well. What do you think of their chances this season (careful now...)?
When I saw them against us on the opening day of 2011/12 season, I thought they'd go up automatically. The likes of Zebroski and McGleish were sublime that day, and Carayol caused problems when he came on as sub. I was a little surprised it didn't work out under Paul Buckle. They were unrecognisable from the season before when they came to Kingsmeadow last year. Eaves played quite well and scored, but nobody else stood out. They just look flat and lacking a bit of technique. But given they ultimately finished quite well last year I'd say they're an unpredictable side this season. I think Chesterfield and Fleetwood will be the top two, but Rovers could be anywhere from 3rd to about 15th. I suspect they'll just make the playoffs, but I don't know a great deal about a lot of their squad. I'm a fan of John-Joe O'Toole though. Used to rate him a couple of leagues higher – saw him boss Charlton at The Valley once – so he ought to be terrific at this level.

My thanks to Chris, and we wish him and AFC Wimbledon well whilst we hopefully defeat their nemesis in Buckinghamshire.

Thanks for reading - COYR!


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Comments

  1. A club like yours trying to take the moral high ground on something that has sweet fa to do with you, remind me who your skipper is these days and where did he start his career - i doubt you would be brave enough to spout the same rhetoric to him? I hope your shitty club goes the same way as Pompey....us lot in MK will certainly be cheering on the Gas in the JPT! Hypocrites

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Born a red, die a red23 August 2013 at 22:04

      You really think anyone at BCFC gives a rats arse if you cheer on the gas?
      Personally, I think it's a decent article.

      Delete
  2. As mentioned in the other comment, do you 'disenfranchise' Sam Baldock, your captain, from the footballing community?

    ReplyDelete
  3. "...sweet fa to do with you"

    Yeah. Teams stealing a league place has sweet FA to do with other teams so keep your noses out of it.

    You stay classy, MK fans.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yeah. Bristol City fans still happy to cheer the goals of a captain 'franchise'-scouted and 'franchise'-trained.

    You stay hypocrites, City fans.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Frankly all this is really a bit boring and we should all just move on.
    As said in the article the best thing to do is acknowledge the good things that have come from Wimbledon moving to Milton Keynes, embrace the good things that have come from that bad situation and not pay any attention to those that don't interest you.
    I don't generally see that winkleman wanted to run a football club at that time, he stepped in opportunistically at the last moment didn't he? But he seems to have embraced what he's doing.
    That said Milton Keynes has produced some good footballers (Sam baldock anyone), does a lot of good in their area and also in the wider world of football and do look like they are run sensibly.
    AFC are also building consistently and will find a natural level that reflects their fan base - I hope that they don't grow into the slightly dodgy reputation that they're beginning to attract.
    It's refreshing to see a restrained view of franchise rather than the usual drivel that you occasionally see.
    Still feels a little petty not to acknowledge them at all though, especially after giving them such a large crowd when you played them. Sure I heard something about toilet damage after that game too?

    ReplyDelete
  6. There's only one real Dons, and they've nothing to do with the fairweather, two-faced, glory-hunting, club-abandoning, subhuman vermin from Kingston.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's good to see the kindred spirit of flagrant hypocrisy being shared between AFC Kingston and Bristol City anyway. Well done and keep up the good work. I'd lay off the in-breeding a bit though if I were you - it's clearly not doing you Oooh-arrrr merchants many favours down there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Plastic club, plastic fans. MK Dons are a stain on football, and the muppets that support them are nothing but spineless non entities

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love how everyone is on AFC's side, until they play them and then find out what complete cunts their fan base is. People come to MK, and 99% of the time the comment is 'Well, Im very surprised. Great day out and the MK fans were top class.' - Il be waiting for this from BCFC.

    What I find funny is, the hate directed towards MK dons, only comes from people that fall under the following description -

    1. Either still a virgin or didn't lose it until they were 30 odd.
    2. Ugly, fat and have nothing else in there lives other than 3pm Saturday afternoon.
    3. Jealously.

    Which one of the above is the OP?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, and further to my previous comment, your Captain is Sam Baldock.

    A player who came through the MK youth system. He loved the club and loved the fans. Still holds us close to his heart and will be back one day im sure.

    I guess you wont be cheering him on tomorrow then? If you do, its nothing but pure hypocrisy from you lot.

    Oh, and in 5-10 years time, have a look at the England squad. I can guarantee they'll be a lot of ex or current MK players in there. Best academy outside of Premiership. Future stars.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tbh I do feel this a rather pathetic post. To say you won't interview an MK Dons fan is ridiculous, AFC kingston didn't even boycott us. What's done is done, it was agreed by the FA and nothing's going to change that now. I've grown up supporting the Dons (I'm only 18) and I think it's much better that I'm doing that than being yet another sky sports season ticket holder who have never seen the team I "support" play live. Good luck to you guys tomorrow,(not to much luck of course!!) especially of course to Baldock, I look forward to hopefully the baldock vs baldock moments. Look forward to a good turn out from you, should be a good game.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I see the M Kons youths have already been in here with their 'AFC kingston' nonsense and making claims that simple aren't true. Fact is, the vast majority of their fans haven't got a clue what went on and ignore the facts. The biggest fact is, franchising in English football isn't welcome and will never happen again. The fact MK Dons is around leaves a sour taste in most of the football communities mouths. MK 'fans' can slag off AFC Wimbledon all they want, but the fact is AFCW is followed by the fans of Wimbledon FC, play in blue and yellow, 5 minutes from Merton, are aiming to get a ground back in Wimbledon and are more Wimbledon-like than a club based miles away who frankly look like their inbred cousin. Nobody likes MK Dons and it's for a massively obvious, sickening reason. All that aside, all the best to Bristol City this season. Hope Toby Ajala gets a few games under his belt!

    ReplyDelete

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