Liam Sweeting believes MK Dons are in a good place, as they continue to edge closer to the start of the 2021/22 season.
The Dons have brought in five new faces this summer, with striker Max Watters the most recent addition on loan from Cardiff City, and while there is still work to do before the transfer window shuts at the end of August, the Club’s Sporting Director is happy with the progress made to this point.
“We, I feel, are in a good position,” Sweeting told iFollow MK Dons in an exclusive catch-up last week. “Even with teams back in pre-season training for a number of weeks, we haven’t seen too many deals in League One so we are, perhaps, ahead of some.
“A number of clubs are still suffering because of Covid and we are no different. The backbone of how we operate is hospitality and it’s been no secret that it’s been a challenge, but I’m really clear on what we’re working with – the Chairman has communicated that to me and Russ, and we have to act accordingly. We are in a really good place, though.
“Nothing has caught us by surprise yet. We also haven’t been in a position where we’re really chasing something, and it hasn’t come off.
“There’s still a long way to go until the deadline at the end of August and we’re not finished yet but if the season started tomorrow, we feel as though Russ would be able to put out a starting XI that everyone would see as pretty good.
“If you’d have said, before we’d even played a game in pre-season, that we’d have a striker, we have our goalkeepers sorted, our defenders are all here from last year and that we’ve got some really exciting options in midfield – I think we’d have all taken this position.
“Obviously, though, we still need to add a few – in the wide areas and the top of the pitch – and we will also be reactive, if needed, because who knows what could happen – the window is open right until the end of August so we could still have offers on our players and, if we do, we will have to react to that.
“Fortunately, one of the benefits of the way we are structured now, is that we can do things really quickly. We have an owner who is here, on the phone every day and who takes a real interest in what we are doing and that means, when we all get in a room and decide we want to do something, we can go and get it done really quickly.
"We saw the benefits of that with the likes of Scott Twine – we were able to move quickly for him and get him through the process quite quickly.”
