Paul Warne has revealed he will delay any conversations about contract renewals with his MK Dons squad until the summer.
The Buckinghamshire side are firmly in the promotion picture heading into the back end of the season, sitting one point behind the automatic places and boasting the second-best record in the division over their last five matches.
Uncertainty Leads To Delay
However, decisions around player contracts have begun to come to the fore, with nearly half of the outfield squad at Stadium MK currently out of contract at the end of the season.
As they gear up to play strugglers Newport County at the weekend, Dons boss Paul Warne discussed his stance on player contracts with promotion back into League One a real possibility. (Quotes via MK Citizen):
“I don’t look at it until the season ends, I just don’t. Football management is precarious enough, I do well sometimes to go from one payday to thenext, so I don’t start to plan for next season.
“I can’t say that it doesn’t come into my mind. If someone hasn’t played this year, the chances of me giving them an extension are less than zero. But for the contributors, there’s always an opportunity but I won’t address that until there’s a resolution to our season.
“If we stay in this league next season, I look at which players would I keep, would I move on, which would I think have performed well over the course of the season? Similarly if we go up, which ones do I think we could improve on?”
“In most of my promotion seasons, virtually everyone who played 60 per cent and above was there the next season, but the ones who were below that, that’s a different conversation.”
A Brutal But Necessary Choice
As much as we as fans do not like it, having to make tough contract decisions which directly affect someone’s livelihood is part and parcel of the game.
As Warne acknowledges, these players who face missing out on a new deal has a family to provide for, and having to face that agonising uncertainty of where they will be playing next season is an unenviable fate.
However, in order for MK Dons to progress as a football club, playing the waiting game is the best course of action and will lead to some very difficult decisions in the summer.
Should they be able to secure promotion, letting some of these players move on has to happen, as proven this season by the teams promoted to League One.
Bradford City saw heavy rotation and recruitment with players like Max Power and Joe Wright making the move to Valley Parade, and now very few of their promotion-winning squad remain at the club.
Their fellow promoted sides in Port Vale and Doncaster Rovers tried to base their campaign on sticking largely with the team that put them up and now both are certain relegation contenders.