The Anonymous Don’s Summer Squad Review Part III – Midfield

Part three of the summer squad review focuses on the midfield, where Brown has assembled a core of talented young footballers…

REECE JONES

Reece Joined the club last summer, and looked impressive during preseason, prompting this blogger to comment that on technical ability alone he looked as good as any midfielder we had at the club. Reece was probably quite unfortunate to have made his debut in a tough away fixture at Rushden, thrown on when Brown had limited options, and seeing the ball consistently thumped over his head, the game passing him by.

The next time we saw Reece in first team action, he was once again called upon in the midst of an injury crisis against Eastbourne, and really impressed most Dons regulars with a proactive display in which he was unlucky not to get himself on the score sheet. Reece was rewarded for his patience with a start against Mansfield, although he saw plenty of action in the county cups, and had a short spell on loan at Kingstonian.

You would expect Reece to be shipped out again this season, maybe to a BSS club, or once again back up the first team, but I expect in a forty-six game season with associated cup games there would be scope for Reece to gain more first team experience before the end of the season.

BRENDAN KIERNAN

Brendan stepped up to the first team from Marcus Gayle’s reserve/development squad, and quickly earned a debut in the televised game at Crawley, a rare positive on a disappointing night for the Dons. Brendan possesses quick feet and plenty of pace, and has shown the potential to develop into a first team player. You would expect Brendan to make a few substitute appearances next term, as an impact players his contributions are more noticeable than Reece Jones, for example.

Yet Brendan’s performances during preseason have shown, as you would expect of a young player, he still has a lot to learn. It sometimes takes a while for a football brain to develop alongside the talent, and Brendan was found guilty of trying to make too much of an impression, overplaying, taking that one too many touches when releasing the ball quicker would have benefited the team. Yet this is something he’ll learn given more and more game time, and we look forward to seeing more of this exciting prospect over the coming twelve months.

LEE MINSHULL

Lee is a different sort of midfielder compared to some of the other players we have in our squad, but one most supporters would like to see more of. Lee brings a considerable physical presence to the team – the positives and negatives were shown early in his Dons career, with his unfortunate sending off on his debut quickly followed by a powerful header against Eastbourne and his first goal for the club.

Yet physical presence is not a property that will allow you to walk into this Dons side, and ignoring his physical presence reveals a midfielder similar to more diminutive colleagues in terms of technical ability. While Lee might not be an automatic first pick, his general flexibility (particularly his ability to fill in defensively) means he will see plenty of action from the bench.

SAMMY MOORE

Terry Brown has regularly moaned about the lack of goals he gets from midfield, yet he can have no such complaints with Sammy Moore’s contribution last term… seven goals from thirty starts, pretty much one in four, and would have certainly got himself into double figures had he not suffered a serious injury.

The injury itself demonstrated the other side of Moore’s game, one that the Dons missed in his absence despite promotion form in the Conference, and will be invaluable in the Football League. Moore threw himself into a 40-60 challenge, the force of which dislocated his knee. Sammy has made an impressive recovery to take part in preseason, but will still have to wait for a chance to return as an automatic starter.

JAMES MULLEY

James Mulley’s arrival took us all by surprise, I don’t think any of us were expecting him to make the impact he did given his background, the fact he had been at Hayes but hadn’t played much. Yet once over an unconvincing half game at right back, Mulley really started to shine… immediately in the case of his twenty-five yard effort in the second half of that Hayes game.

Mulley probably would have continued to have played a key role in our promotion campaign, had he not been unfortunately sent off at Crawley… unfortunate because the challenge just didn’t need to be made in stoppage time, and because it reduced the input he had in our run-in. Still, Mulley rounded off the destruction of Fleetwood with a tidy finish to cap off the goal of the night, and looked the best player on the pitch when coming on at Eastlands (although tiring opponents may have helped).

Yet Mulley funds himself starting the season behind Yussuff and Wellard in the pecking order, and competing with Sammy Moore when fully fit. A sign of our strength in depth maybe, but frustrating for the individuals not able to play an immediate role in our return to the league.

MAX PORTER

I suppose the easiest way of replacing Steven Gregory was to simply sign his England C team-mate from last season… although its unfair to label Porter as a replacement for Gregory, particularly as Porter was signed a month before there was any suggestion Gregory might leave. But having filled Gregory’s old position in midfield, comparisons are going to be made…

While Porter might not have the same range of passing his predecessor had, he adds to the team in different ways. He is certainly much stronger in the challenge, and added bonus in a position where helping out defensively when things go wrong is an important secondary requirement. I suppose the big question we have now is who will play that role if Porter is ever unavailable?

RICKY WELLARD

This time twelve months ago, Ricky faced perhaps the most important season in his career, facing up to the prospect of forcing his way into the Dons Conference side. It’s fair to say around Christmas time that things weren’t entirely going to plan, despite playing well on occasion, Ricky just wasn’t consistent enough, and found himself out of the side as a result.

Yet Terry Brown decided what Ricky needed was a change of scenery, and shipped him off on loan to Cambridge for a month. Not only did Ricky get to start regularly, he was rated very highly by the Cambridge fans and staff alike. Ricky returned a much more confident player, a changed man almost, putting in a number of outstanding displays including running the game on his return with the Dons to the Abbey Stadium, a performance that earned him a standing ovation from the home fans.

That Ricky started against Crawley on Friday night says he is the man right now as far as Brown is concerned, the shirt is his to lose. Yet like last season the Dons faithful may need some convincing that Ricky is good enough for the division he is playing in, having finally convinced doubters he was good enough for the Conference, he needs to repeat the trick in League Two.

RASHID YUSSEFF

Toks was the perfect example of the sort of professional TB is looking to recruit last term. Coming down from Gillingham, he didn’t immediately command a place in the starting lineup, yet there was no fuss from Yusseff, despite the fact he seemed destined to be a perennial substitute (Toks early performances from the bench were superb, his first few starts unconvincing).

Eventually winning his starting role towards the end of the season, Toks looks set to be a key player for the Dons next term. A technically brilliant left footed midfielder with an eye for goal, having scored six league goals in twenty-one starts last term, that will come in more than handy if he can reproduce that scoring rate in the Dons return to league football.

Another Quiet Monday Down At Kingsmeadow

Today was bound to be huge on the news front, as I’d planned a summer mini-feature that was due to be typed up and published tonight. As you might imagine, there isn’t normally enough day-to-day news to satisfy the Anonymous Don’s thirst for becoming the Dons… no wait, the Leagues most prolific bloggers, if I can’t be the best I have to be number one at something.

Having said that I am one of lifes perennial second place men, one of my fondest childhood memories was coming second in the school skipping race, and a playing career spent in the beer leagues resulted in a fair haul of runners-up medals. Ironically, I realised the other day whilst polishing them up on the ‘football shelf’ here at ADHQ that I had lost one of the few winners medals I had earned; the fact it bothered me little is probably better discussed with my therapist than such a public forum.

Anyway, my plans for an evenings writing thrown more and more into chaos every time I checked NewsNow. Until I realised this was all Bloggers Gold, for once I don’t have to worry about fabricating subject matter… I’m not even sure where to start on a day like today, so I’ve decided I’ll approach the news on a sliding scale, from those coming to those going, with those who have simply confirmed they are staying put filling the gap.

First up, Charles Ademeno has joined from Grimsby. An interesting one this, Ademeno seems to have suffered a little last season, suffering various injuries to the point that despite still having a year on his contract, the Marriners new management team basically seem to have told him if he could find a new club he could go. The O/S was quick to point out Mike Rayner had given him one of his particularly stringent medicals, for the second time in the space of a week a player with serious question marks over fitness has been cleared to sign… although the same article advised Ademeno’s contract ‘reflects his recent injury record’.

Lets face it, if Ademeno had spent last season banging the goals in he probably wouldn’t have looked twice in the general direction of Kingsmeadow… even if we could afford him. So what are the benefits of signing such a player? Ademeno has sat on the sidelines for much of the last season, and will be keen to get back to scoring goals. We might picture strikers as mercenaries, eager to top up their pay packet by any means possible. And that’s absolutely true in the vast majority of cases, lets not be in denial about that. Yet the only way they can boost their value is by scoring goals, something Ademeno didn’t do a lot of last season. In short, the reason we signed this undoubtedly talented but injury prone forward is because we got him on the cheap, with the club bearing little risk.

Our second new signing, albeit one returning after a loan spell last season, is Chris Bush. I think if I had told you our loanee left back from last season was going to sign for us, you would have presumed Gareth Gwillim was poised to put pen to paper. And to be fair, I thought Gwillim was just about the better of the two, perhaps you did too. Yet I felt a bit of a rush when I read he agreed to join permanently… Towards the end of his loan spell I highlighted the admittedly few errors Bush made in a match report, wondering whether we could justify playing a guy who was here to make mistakes, learn his trade, but to do so for the benefit of another club.

Yet now he’s ours, hopefully we can see the tangible results of such potential. We are slightly fortunate that Brentford have quality in his position blocking his way to the first team, the opportunity to play League football must have been a huge lure, to the point I don’t think he would be here now had we lost at Eastlands. Then again, you could probably say the same about half our first team squad…

I think most of us will sleep a little easier knowing we have at least one permanent left back in the squad, even if Bush was regarded as more of a centre back at Brentford. On the subject of the Bees, apparently there is no truth in the rumour their office has been besieged by requests for information regarding where their new Development squad will play their games next season from Dons fans eager to see our stars of the future…

Oh, and how strong would we be defensively if we could also sign Gwillim up?

James Mulley has been a Don but not been a Don for the past six months… if that makes sense.. What I mean is, his non-contract status meant however many interviews he gave saying how much he was enjoying himself at the club, you still had a sneaking suspicion he might take off at the first sign of a better offer, I’m glad we’ve finally tied him down, Mulley’s goals were vital last season, if it hadn’t been for a silly dismissal at Crawley he would have played a much bigger part in the run in. At Eastlands he looked our best player when he came on, although admittedly this was amidst tired players cramping up left, right and centre.

Possibly the biggest signing of the day was Seb Brown, I’m not going to say too much about Seb… remember that feature I spoke of earlier, the one coming later in the week. Well I’m sure it won’t ruin the surprise for you to find out now Seb features quite prominently in the first part. But, yes, once again, a massive signature. Seb proved last season he was the best goalkeeper outside the League, next time out he can prove he’s the best in the lower divisions. Quite honestly, the longer we keep hold of Seb the better…

Finally on the new signings front, Ryan Jackson converted his old contract into a spanking new Football League version. I think we are all looking forward to seeing how the younger, less experienced players such as Jackson cope with the step up, especially as Ryan didn’t quite manage to hold his place towards the end of the season. Still, his dynamic start to the campaign was enough to convince me he deserved a chance, it’s probably sink or swim this time around…

Moving on to the exit door, and fortunately that has remained firmly closed of late. Steven Gregory was the subject of a third, improved bid by Bournemouth, but with previous bids reported to be around the £40,000 mark I’m hoping a negative response will end their interest, Yet this might not be the end of the story, check out paragraph eleven of this report for a quote from Lee Bradbury, or for those of you unwilling to click on links and count into double figures… “I think he has got interest from other clubs as well so we are looking to secure his services as soon as possible before those other clubs try to snatch him.”.

And what of Keds, the man who last week seemed certain to be on his way imminently? Well there doesn’t seem to be too much interest outside of Gillingham, but questions relating to their desire to pay the Dons asking price, and from their support as to whether he is worth it. I can answer that one for them – No, I don’t think he is. I can’t understand why anyone in League Two would spend a six figure sum on anyone when there seems to be so much quality floating around for free. Thats a potential extra two grand a week on a free transfer signings salary. In this climate, only those guaranteed to bring goals are worth that money.

I’m wondering whether there is anyone prepared to match the Dons valuation, whether Keds might really start the season a Wimbledon player. Maybe with interest tailing off, Erik and Terry might offer a small increase in his already generous salary (by Wimbledon standards). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel the player should be rewarded for asking to leave, just a small morale boosting gesture to get his mind back to what, deep down, we all want to see… Kedwell leading the Dons line into League Two…

Aw, who am I kidding? As soon as Gillingham’s interest dies Evans will be on the phone and Kedwell will be a Crawley player at a knockdown price. Please let me be wrong…

WUP 8.8

This article was originally published in WUP 8.8, March ’11. With the playoffs looming, Terry Brown’s mid-season acquisitions were reviewed…

What a difference twelve months makes. This time last year, despite attending games left, right, and Gateshead, my mind was elsewhere. The sun had started to show itself and thoughts of beach BBQs and beer gardens were muscling out mediocre football, as the Dons settled for a mid-table finish. This column is written in part to publicise my ever popular and award-winning blog of the same name (for that’s where the good stuff lies… and this wouldn’t be one of those lame marketing plugs if I didn’t now request you ‘Search ‘Anonymous Don’ on Facebook’…), so I decided to check my archive and find out what I thought of the miserable end to the 09/10 campaign – only to find one post, a single line effort apologizing for the lack of updates. I’d never claim to be the most hardcore of supporters, I do a fair few away games and I can be bothered to keep a blog going about my beloved Dons for over two years, but it probably says quite a lot about the standard of entertainment at the time that, to be honest, I just couldn’t be arsed with it.

Flash forward a year, and I’m starting to hope football never ends. We have been richly spoiled this season by the standard of football – ok, not quite good enough to sustain a title challenge, but the sort of improvement we couldn’t have envisaged at the start of the season. The obvious explanation would be our move into the brave new world of professional football, but starting with such a young squad we were always going to be found wanting when the injuries piled up. Fortunately, thanks to ESPN and ITV (and to a lesser extent and entirely unintentionally, a franchise outfit in Buckinghamshire…), we found a bit of cash to supply Terry Brown with a January war chest to pick up the cream of available talent, supplement our threadbare squad and bolster our promotion charge. But hang on… Wasn’t the unsettling introduction of various journeyman loanees one of the reasons we slumped so badly towards the end of 09/10?

Certainly more than one Dons fan pointed out a sense of deja vu between last seasons recruitment drive and this January window, even if the only similarity was the number of bodies passing through the Kingsmeadow entrance. January is always going to be a much harder time of year to bring a player in, everyone who is anywhere near half decent will be on a contract and staying put elsewhere. On top of this, moving to a new side mid-season must be an unsettling experience. Having said that, how have Browns class of 2011 reinforcements worked out? I decided to run the rule over how they have got on so far – but bear in mind like the Man of the Match award announced with ten minutes to go, we still have the most important part of the season remaining…

James Mulley (Hayes & Yeading) – Non-contract

When I was a kid I remember reading a cartoon strip, perhaps in the boxes of old Roy of the Rovers comics my Junior School kept to keep the kids entertained when it rained at lunchtime. Anyway, the story revolved around footballs version of a ‘gun for hire’, a player available on a match by match basis to any club who could afford his fee. Mulley is a little different in that he doesn’t seem to be swayed by money (well, no more than anyone else…), his prime motivation appears to be to play in the Football League. The decision to bring in Mulley was described by TB as a ‘no-brainer’, in that his non-contract status meant he could be discarded if not required, yet it very quickly became apparent that if Mulley were to leave the Dons it would likely be his own decision. Fans were soon fretting he might be snapped up, the club mentioned most were Crawley, which was more an insight into Dons fans paranoia following the Kedwell bids in the summer than any realistic concerns. This wasn’t surprising as he fitted in immediately, and seemed an automatic choice for the rest of the season once Sammy Moore’s kneecap decided to relocate half way up his thigh. A brain-dead red card picked up at Crawley and resulting three match ban coincided with the return to fitness and form of Minshull and Wellard respectively. Will have a big part to play over the remainder of the season, whether he’ll still be with us next season is anyones guess and will probably depend on which division we find ourselves in.

Kirk Hudson (Aldershot) – Loan

On the face of it the loan of Kirk Hudson must have seemed a complete gimme as Brown saw it. With first year professionals Jackson and Jolley having been exceptional, but overdue a run of poor form, we needed someone to fill in for them when required. And Hudson seemed to tick all the boxes. He has pace, isn’t afraid to shoot and can put in a decent cross when inclined. Plus, he’s done it before in this division for this manager. And yet… it hasn’t quite worked out for him so far. I get the impression if he’d joined us in the summer and got the chance to settle in he might have had a storming season, yet joining in mid-season probably hasn’t done him any favours. Perhaps it’s because, mentally, dropping down a division is a step backwards for him? Or perhaps this division has moved on even in the two years since he played in it last? Either way, at the time of writing Luke Moore, Ryan Jackson, a fit again Christian Jolley and new signing Kaid Mohamed are ahead of him in the pecking order to flank Kedwell, and it seems unlikely he’ll play a major part in the remainder of the season. Stranger things have happened, of course…

Jamie Stuart (Rushden) – Nominal Fee

Ed Harris and Fraser Franks hadn’t really done anything wrong covering for the perma-injured Johnson and Yakubu, but the signing of Stuart was a masterstroke. Stuart is a real pro, fitting in immediately, including a standout performance chaperoning a makeshift defence to a clean sheet against Luton. Of course, the irony now is that Johnson and Yakubu returned and consigned Stuart, somewhat unfairly, to a place on the bench. Yet we can be sure that if anything happens to either of them, we have a capable body standing by ready to fill in. In fact, it wouldn’t weaken us too much if it happened, and that’s what you need heading into huge playoff encounters.

Gareth Gwillim (Dagenham) – Loan

The loan signing of Gwillim probably says a lot about the state of football these days in that there are players operating in the two divisions below us who are professional in all but name, yet we find ourselves taking a League One fullback on loan and it turns out he spends most of his evenings maintaining the London Underground. I’m not sure whether Dagenham were aware of this when he turned out for them or if he was just moonlighting? Dons left-backs are going to suffer from Hussey-comparison for the forseeable future, and hoping Gwillim was going to compare going forward was always wishful thinking. What we have really needed, in fact have been crying out for since Hussey departed, was a solid, no-nonsense full-back whose priority is to get the defensive part of the position right, and we have that in Gwillim. A perfect example was his wonderful last-ditch block that prevented a certain goal in the first half at Cambridge – that we dominated the game for eighty minutes was in part down to a solid defensive performance, and we can ony hope Gwillim’s performances go from strength to strength moving into the playoffs.

Drewe Broughton (Lincoln) – Loan

I know he’s gone now, and the circumstances surrounding his departure will presumably be mentioned elsewhere in this esteemed publication, for now I just want to make the following point. Broughton was the perfect example of crap lower league target man (dire first touch, no positional sense, poor scoring record, no pace, etc), yet this sort of player seems to be de rigueur in League Two… perhaps Brown merely signed him six months too early? On the other hand, I have no idea who is responsible for scouting players in the north for us, but judging by the last couple of target men he’s sent our way you have to wonder whether he’s taking the piss…

Kaid Mohamed (Bath) – Permanent

It was nice to see Mo come in and make an impact on his debut. While Broughton appeared to be a square peg in a round hole, Mo is more our sort of player. Of all the new arrivals, Mo’s task must have been tougher than any. To walk into a squad challenging for promotion with little more than a month remaining, and be expected to turn it on immediately was a big ask of anyone, but it looks as though Terry has got this one right, touch wood. He could have added more goals in his first few games but we’ll forgive him for that, his bustling run into the box against Rushden and instinctive finish at Cambridge have shown us he has the potential to score a lot of goals for Wimbledon.

Overall?… There is a reason Steve Evans went out and bought three squads worth of talent was due to signing players not being an exact science. You can scout them as much as you want, you could have managed them in the past, it doesn’t matter… sometimes a move doesn’t work out for no other reason than it just doesn’t. Evans had the money to bring in as many players as he needed (the fact they were parachuted in from League One or the SPL probably helped too…) because he could afford to in order to pretty much guarantee success. Terry Brown didn’t have that luxury, we know he missed out on some of his top targets, so under the circumstances I think he’s done pretty well. Ok, Broughton was a throw of the dice that didn’t come up in his favour but we lost nothing taking that gamble, beyond a few hours lost debating the rights and wrongs of signing an ex-franchiser (and I still don’t think we’ll get over that until we sign someone who left them in acrimonious circumstances and goes on to be a success for us…).

We can look back on a top three league finish with pride, and the knowledge that a fairer promotion/relegation system (such as exists between L1/L2…) would have seen us involved in a scramble for automatic promotion. As it is, it’s the playoffs, a completely different type of challenge. We might be promoted, we might be beaten by the better side, we might perform poorly and look back on what might have been, but the one excuse we no longer have is a lack of depth in the squad – they take us into May carrying hopes and dreams so important to us that to be honest, I’m finding difficult to even visualise right now…

Further WUP articles can be found in the Features Index