Dons boss urges patience in summer transfer market
Neal Ardley has provided an update on his summer transfer plans and he maintains belief that AFC Wimbledon will have a strong squad in place by the start of next season.
Speaking to Dons Player, the Wimbledon manager confirmed that he will be meeting with more targets at the end of this week and is far from panicking about getting players signed up in May.
“I have personally met with three players now and I have got another meeting with a player on Friday,” Neal said. “A lot of work is going into selling my methods, the way that we do things here, and what we are aiming to do at the club next season. Ultimately, that has to happen because we are not in a position to start throwing our budget away and to start panicking early on.
“I am really confident that we will put together a very good team by the start of the season. However, I am showing a lot of restraint and patience to ensure that our targets are the ones that will fit into the dynamics of the team. We are trying to create a team.”
Neal added that a lot of hard work behind the scenes has taken place during the close season as regards building a squad for 2013/14, which starts on Saturday, August 3.
“I am positive with how the meetings have gone, but I did not expect signings to have been made by mid-May,” he said. “I do not expect signings to be made in the next week or two. I think that things will really start to hot-up in June after I have had a well-earned break with my family. We have done a lot of groundwork and there has been a lot of positivity. We will slowly put it all together.”
Neal Ardley was speaking during an in-depth interview at the Cherry Red Records Stadium, which can be viewed on Dons Player. Neal spoke at length about the club’s youth system on a day when he met with Youssouf Bamba, Chace Jacquart, Charlie Fayers and Tom Beere about those players joining the professional ranks next season. Subscribers to our premium site can now also watch a video interview with Youssouf and Chace about making the step-up from Wimbledon Under-18s.