Posted July 1, 200816 yr Some friends of mine are MK Dons fans and they swear that Roberto Di Matteo (formerly of this parish) will be the new Dons manager this week! Anyone heard this? If so I wish him all the best. I have been to the new stadium with my mates and it's a nice club. the chairman seems to really back his managers and so I think that Robbie stands a real chance of making a fist of it. I just wonder who is #2 will be. Another Chelsea old-boy?
July 1, 200816 yr News to me Jim, but I'd love it if it were true. Having followed Chelsea for nearly all the 90's, I still dream of the day that one of the old guard came back to coach. I know that Gullit and Viallu promptly took positions, but it'd be great to see someone come back. Zola as his #2? You know it makes sense
July 1, 200816 yr Author SkySports are now linking him with the post. Damn I should have put a bet on!
July 1, 200816 yr ive heard eddie newton and frank sinclair will be part of his mangerial team. i think this is brilliant. gives me a team in the lower divisions to keep an eye on.
July 1, 200816 yr I was in Eire last week and the press there were suggesting that JFH was approached about the position.
July 1, 200816 yr Author From BBC Online... Di Matteo all set for Dons role Roberto Di Matteo is expected to be named as Paul Ince's successor at MK Dons, reports BBC Three Counties Radio. The former Chelsea midfielder, 38, has emerged as favourite after discussions with chairman Pete Winkelman and could be unveiled in the next 48 hours. Di Matteo won 34 caps for Italy during spells with Lazio and Chelsea and retired from playing in 2002. Ince left to replace Mark Hughes at Blackburn last month after guiding the Dons to League Two title last season. Winkleman was keen to appoint a new manager as quickly as possible with the Dons players reporting back for pre-season training on Monday and said he had received 40 applications for the vacant post. ----------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- This really would be great news. I really think Robbie is going to be good manager. And I can only hope he does well. Def my second team for next season. Always liked the guy. A real class act. Chelsea are releasing some youngsters at the mo. I wonder if Robbie will pick them up for L1? Edited July 1, 200816 yr by Jimboola69
July 2, 200816 yr Author It's Robbie plus Eddie Newton apparently... New Dons boss today Shame to lose Eddie from the club but from assistant to the u-16's to asisstant manager to a big L1 side is great fo him. # Click on image to view full # Edited July 2, 200816 yr by Jimboola69
July 4, 200816 yr Author suddenly difficult to dislike them now. Never did. Lot of misconceptions about that club. Been there a few times with mates...nice place. Robbie, Eddie and Ade Mafe. Good Chelsea connection.
July 4, 200816 yr Eddie Newton has been making a good name for himself as a coach in our youth/academy set up, it's great news for both of them.
July 4, 200816 yr Its like when Wise went to Swindon Town and they instantly became likable. Will keep an eye out for the Dons results from now on.
July 4, 200816 yr Never did. Lot of misconceptions about that club.Been there a few times with mates...nice place. Robbie, Eddie and Ade Mafe. Good Chelsea connection. are there? never liked wimbledon, but football clubs are before anything else for the local community, and to rob a community of it's club and take it 60 miles down the road is totally wrong. they mk dons people were too lazy it seems to me, to start a club properly at the bottom of the league so they just muscled in and removed wimbledon. it's just wrong on both levels- to take the club from its fans, and to jump ahead of all of the other football clubs that had to actually play football and win to get up the league ladder. nothing against milton keyes, never been there, and nothing against their fans. it was just done in a way I don't agree with. p.s. mk dons also recently handed over wimbledon's "history" (i.e the fa cup etc) to afc wimbledon, IMO a tacit admission that they "stole" the club.
July 4, 200816 yr are there? never liked wimbledon, but football clubs are before anything else for the local community, and to rob a community of it's club and take it 60 miles down the road is totally wrong. they mk dons people were too lazy it seems to me, to start a club properly at the bottom of the league so they just muscled in and removed wimbledon. it's just wrong on both levels- to take the club from its fans, and to jump ahead of all of the other football clubs that had to actually play football and win to get up the league ladder.nothing against milton keyes, never been there, and nothing against their fans. it was just done in a way I don't agree with. p.s. mk dons also recently handed over wimbledon's "history" (i.e the fa cup etc) to afc wimbledon, IMO a tacit admission that they "stole" the club. Spot on Gullit!
July 4, 200816 yr are there? never liked wimbledon, but football clubs are before anything else for the local community, and to rob a community of it's club and take it 60 miles down the road is totally wrong. they mk dons people were too lazy it seems to me, to start a club properly at the bottom of the league so they just muscled in and removed wimbledon. it's just wrong on both levels- to take the club from its fans, and to jump ahead of all of the other football clubs that had to actually play football and win to get up the league ladder.nothing against milton keyes, never been there, and nothing against their fans. it was just done in a way I don't agree with. p.s. mk dons also recently handed over wimbledon's "history" (i.e the fa cup etc) to afc wimbledon, IMO a tacit admission that they "stole" the club. Doesn't that sort of thing happen quite alot in the US? (by that i mean teams moving cities etc.)
July 6, 200816 yr Author @gullit4 - Okay, I will explain my view. The people of Milton Keynes did not kill Wimbledon. They were killed by Sam Hamman, and to a lesser extent by their own fans. Hamman (a likeable muppet to many) had been hawking the club around for relocation to places like Dublin and Scotland for years. Even a move to the 'just built' Stade de France was being mooted at one point. As for the fans. The Wimbledon fans had built a fund to rescue the club from being put into recievership before the buy out by MK. Not surprisingly they (probably) realised that even if they did this, they may well have to do it again in a few months. They were millions in debt, had attendances that would have shamed a small L2 club, had no ground and were hemoraging money in the region of 100's of thousands per month. No Premiership money meant that they could not support themselves on tiny gates. The supporters group walked away. They set up AFC Wimbledon and made arrangements to buy out Kingstonian's stadium. The MK group (I think called Inter MK at the time) took on all the debt, players contacts (some of which like John Hartson were huge..he had been bought for £7m a season or so before) and were only allowed to do so after agreeing to keep the club afloat and ensure a perminent ground was built within a certain time scale. It wa said by the FA to be a 'special case' as the club was surely going to die, and Inter MK made agreements on finances and stadia that were they deafulted on would have cost them their league status. I believe that the new club went into adminsitration three or four times and all the assets were sold for a pitance, such as Nigel Reo Coker of Villa (cost them £8m) and Jobi McAnuff who appeared in this year's cup final. After 3-4 years of all this they found themselves in L2, a far cry from the turn of the decade when they were in the Prem. But they have finally turned it around. they have a great new stadium (as required) which I have been too and is very good. They have won many many community schemes especially youth and inclusion awards (to do with minorities and young offenders etc) and while gates at the old Wimbledon (at Selhurst) bottomed out at 2-3k in the Championship, they reached over 10k on a few occasions last year in L2. Now I am not saying it was hunky dory. And maybe 2-3k fans deserve their team as much as bigger amounts. But the club had long turned against the 'community'. For over a decade Merton Council had refused planning permission for the building of a new stadium, and there were no signs that this would change. They could not perminetly relocate to Selhurst (already taken :( ) and building in other areas of London would have been notoriously problematic and of course very very expensive. Wimbledon would have lost league status within 18 months..not any real argument against that.... unless a mad billionaire took over. Yes Mk probably 'should' have started from the bottom. But they offered assurences to the FA, and ensured that the league would not have to be completely rejigged with Wimbledon falling out of the league...similar to the situation that happened to Gretna in Scotland. But the people of Mk have done nothing wrong to my mind. they have a team, they are supporting it. good luck to them. AFC Wimbledon is now a manageable entity which is much more to do with the community than Wimbledon had been for many years...so maybe both sides got something out of it. Oh and the returning of Wimbledon memorabilia I think I just an attempt to draw a line under the whole affair. I could go on longer but I think that covers the most salient points.
