Manager Karl Robinson has confirmed Dale Jennings and Jason Banton will be returning to their parents clubs with their loan deals set to expire.
The two wingers’ loans are not due to run out until Sunday but Robinson, today, told the media that the pair will not feature this weekend and have played their final games for the Football Club.
Banton, on loan from Premier League side Crystal Palace, made 17 appearances for the Dons this season while also scoring three goals; including two superb long-range efforts against Preston North End and, more recently, Tranmere Rovers.
However, the 21-year-old has found himself out of the starting line-up in recent weeks, with his last appearance coming in 1-0 victory over Dover Athletic in early December.
Jennings, meanwhile, has played in every one of the six games he’s been eligible for since joining on a month’s loan in November. The Barnsley winger failed to find the back of the net during his time at stadiummk but his impressive performances out on the wing has played a large part in the side’s recent good form.
Speaking on Thursday, Robinson said: “We spoke to Dale and his agent last night. He’s disappointed because he wanted to stay but Barnsley, under a new manager, want to have a look at him in January.
“He’s a special young talent and a wonderful player but we’re under the impression they want to assess him again. He can’t play on the weekend (because of the terms of his loan) so it’s one of those things.
“Jason Banton is going to go back to Crystal Palace and I don’t think I’ll be taking him to Wigan because I only want to take players that I’m hoping to keep, there – except Patrick, of course, because we don’t have another striker.
“Jason’s showed flashes of why we brought him in. I had a good chat with him yesterday and he understands the situation and I think he knows where he’s got to improve.”
Although the futures of Jennings and Banton are now decided, Robinson still has two more decisions to make with regards to Samir Carruthers and Jordan Spence and while the 33-year-old would like to retain the services of Aston Villa man Carruthers he is less sure of doing so with defender Spence.
He added: “I’ve got to make a phone call to Paul Lambert tomorrow because I’d like to try and retain Samir for the rest of the season. We do have to be respectful of Aston Villa, though. He’s their player and we have got to do right by them.
“Jordan is somebody that I’d like to keep hold of, if possible, but there are an awful lot of things that have got to right for that to happen. I do have Antony Kay back fit, we’ve got Tom Flanagan and, of course, Shauny Williams so it’s not a position that can probably hold four players.
“I’ve got a meeting with Jordan tomorrow and me and him will have a long sit down and a chat about what we feel we have to do to make things happen. (Centre-back) isn’t an area that I’m worried about at the moment, there’s other parts of the team that I feel I have to get right first.”
Finally, Robinson also revealed that he is working on bringing some new faces to stadiummk in this January Transfer Window.
“From here on in we’ve got a lot of work to do to feel the voids left by some of these talented individuals. I’ve already made a number of phone calls and hopefully, over this period, we can bring in some players of a similar calibre.”
“We need to be very proactive with everything we do in the transfer market but hopefully we can pull one or two things out of the bag that will surprise some people but also keep us moving forward.
“I’ve got one or two ideas in mind and in the air and if I can pull off one in particular that I want to do, then I’ll be very excited about where we can go. But that’s if we can pull it off and there are still an awful lot of things that have to go right before we can do that.”
