Process or Pragmatism? The MK Dons conundrum
Having once again sacrificed attractive football in their quest for a swift return to League One, promotion is a must for Dons.
In July 2021, MK Dons boss Russell Martin appeared adamant that speculation linking him to the vacant managerial post at Swansea City was not grounded in any truth. “I have a sign on the wall outside the Stadium MK which says 'ignore the noise, trust the process and enjoy the journey.”
Martin was roundly mocked when he upped sticks for South Wales just a few days later but his mantra is one that MK have always stuck by. Fittingly for a club which is still yet to celebrate its twentieth birthday, Dons pride themselves on giving opportunities to unproven talent, both on the pitch and in the dugout.
In keeping with this ethos, the Martin-shaped hole was filled by Liam Manning. Like his predecessor, the former Leiston midfielder had never managed a senior league match in England before his appointment and favoured a high-possession brand of football. The rookie boss enjoyed an excellent season, taking a young team to the brink of automatic promotion from League One before a narrow playoff defeat to Wycombe Wanderers brought the campaign to a disappointing conclusion.
When star players Scott Twine and Harry Darling left for the Championship and a raft of key loanees departed, 2021-22 risked becoming a crucial opportunity missed, but if any team were well-placed to continue their upward trajectory, it was Dons. Losing key men was a blow but it was also the sign of the club moving forward and an example of the process in action. The money brought in from the sales exceeded £5m and Sporting Director Liam Sweeting set about reinvesting some of it into the next crop of bright young things to emerge from the MK conveyer belt.
Renowned EFL pundit Gab Sutton backed Manning’s men to win the third tier the following season, boldly stating they could “dominate” the division and break the 100-point barrier. However, Dons endured a poor start from which they never recovered, as 2022-23 saw two managerial changes and culminated in a shock relegation. Even if the reasoning for Sutton’s faith in him was sound, Sweeting’s recruitment proved to be a pale imitation of his work the previous summer and the 2022 additions flattered to deceive.
Once Manning had been relieved of his duties, instead of turning to a trusted old head to drag the team out of the bottom four kicking and screaming, Dons picked another novice. Mark Jackson, a coach at Leeds United, took on the role and started well but ultimately couldn’t dodge the drop and left in May.
When Graham Alexander was brought in to replace him this summer, it appeared that the baby had been thrown out with the bathwater. With ten years of experience in the EFL, two promotions on his CV and a tendency to play direct football, he does not fit the profile of a typical MK Dons boss. Yet the decision to appoint him was reminiscent of the club’s strategy when they last dropped into the fourth tier back in 2018 and Paul Tisdale was poached from Exeter to oversee a promotion push.
MK weren’t easy on the eye, but they got the job done, scraping into the top three with a final day victory over Mansfield. While Swindon and Forest Green have shown that escaping League Two and playing attractive football are not mutually exclusive, the generally accepted blueprint for success in the division is to build a stingy defence and take advantage of set pieces to win low margin games.
There has been a marked shift in player recruitment too, with the buy, develop and sell model having taken a back seat for the time being. Even with the presence of veterans Dean Lewington and Bradley Johnson in the team, there was an overreliance on untested talent last season, particularly before the January window. Sweeting has since sought to redress the balance and spent the summer of 2023 acquiring battle-hardened EFL operaters in the 25-29 age bracket.
Neither Cameron Norman nor Alex Gilbey have sky-high potential but both were among the best players in League Two with their former clubs last season and MJ Williams was a key part of Bolton’s promotion winning squad in 2021. Likewise, deadline day signing Ellis Harrison has been around the block and provides a physical presence which was clearly lacking 12 months ago.
So far, things are looking good as only goal difference keeps MK out of the top three, even if Alexander’s philosophy couldn’t be any further from that of Martin or Manning. Despite the severe lack of quality on display last season, Dons still ranked in the top half for possession, but this year the opposite is true - only Sutton, Walsall and Morecambe have enjoyed less off the ball.
MK’s attacking numbers paint an interesting picture too. Having scored 14 times from an expected goals (XG) count of 6.05, they have not exerted half as much dominance as the table would suggest. However, there are mitigating circumstances behind the figures as Dons have taken early leads in six of their seven league fixtures and thus haven’t needed to impose themselves on their opposition for large durations of these games.
The quality of the forward line is such that these numbers may not be completely unsustainable anyway; Mo Eisa and Jonathan Leko should be playing higher up the pyramid and both can produce something from nothing, which should allow Alexander to focus his energy on building a solid defensive structure behind them.
It is not uncommon for clubs to adjust their style for a new division, but such shifts are rarely this drastic and if anything, teams dropping down a level tend to dictate games more often than they previously did, not less. Perhaps the urgency to get back to League One at expense of the process is down to pride? Chairman Pete Winkleman, a polarising figure both at Stadium MK and in wider footballing circles, has made no secret of his lofty ambitions for the club, so being back in the fourth tier once again surely leaves a scar.
A more generous assessment would be that the club’s pragmatism is only a short-term measure. In all likelihood, Winkleman and Sweeting both envisage youth development as being the driver of the club’s future success but the financial rewards of player sales are far greater in League One. With that in mind, playing ugly to get out of the fourth tier isn’t so much a compromise of the club’s principles, but a means by which they can embody them more effectively at a later date.
Whatever the motivation for the change, it is hard to escape the feeling that Graham Alexander and MK Dons are in a marriage of convenience. For both parties, all that matters is promotion. Despite MK placing such emphasis on process, the difference between success and failure this season will be decided entirely by outcome.
If they bounce straight back to League One, MK’s season will provide the blueprint of how to adapt to challenging circumstances but if not, the club will have abandoned its values without anything in return and with its long term targets further away than ever before.
Process or pragmatism? For MK Dons, 2023-24 is all or nothing.