While hopeful of appointing someone sooner rather than later, Liam Sweeting says the search a new manager will take “as long as it takes” to find the right man for MK Dons.
The Dons are just days away from starting their 2021/22 Sky Bet League One campaign but are without a manager following the shock departure of Russell Martin last weekend.
Since Sunday evening, Sweeting has been working his way through his own shortlist of replacements as well as the many “exciting” applications that have applied for the post, but the Club’s Sporting Director isn’t ready to put a timeframe on making a decision.
“It will take as long as it takes,” Sweeting said in a press conference on Tuesday at Stadium MK. “We recognise there are games coming thick and fast and we want it sorted as quickly as possible but it will take as long as it takes to get the right person.
“This has happened to come at an awkward time for us, which is frustrating, but we are a functional League One football club and our job is to get this process underway, which it is, and to get the best person we possibly can.
“It’s not just about being reactive to what comes in – and we’ve had some really exciting applicants – but there is a proactive approach too where we have people already in mind who we feel would be a good fit.
“The Club has a clear style that we’ve been successful with and the group has been recruited with that in mind so we won’t come away from that, that’s for sure. That said, it’s still quite broad so it’s up to us, in the interviews, so see how the applicant applies those principles.”
“We are talking to people already but we can’t give a time frame yet because I don’t know who it’s going to be at this stage.
“There are lots of applicants but they have to get onto the shortlist, and I will get the shortlist down to a manageable number, before putting that in front of the Chairman for us to interview.”
Sweeting added: Our preference would be to not to do (what happened to us) to another Football Club at this point, unless we absolutely had to. We have to be careful with that because it’s caused us some problems.
“But, MK Dons is the priority and we just have to make sure we get the best person we possibly can.”
