By Rob Cornell
Two familiar faces were back in pre-season training for the Dons and full of Monday motivation, as striker Kwesi Appiah and left-back Callum Kennedy got back down to work as fully fledged players again.
Kwesi and Callum spoke to our premium iFollow channel having completed another session under Neal Ardley, following their returns to the club.
Kwesi had previously been with the club on loan in 2014 and was Neal's first addition this Summer. He had been playing for Viking in Norway and was then granted time off before joining up with Wimbledon this morning. Callum made a surprise return on Friday night, when Neal revealed at the "Meet the Manager" event he had returned to the Dons yet again – this time after a season at Leyton Orient.
Both Callum and Kwesi (pictured) were also delighted to be wearing the new Puma training gear, also launched at the club last Friday night.
Here's some of what they had to say in their first exclusive interview, with the full interview available to iFollow subscribers:
Q – How did the session go and how does it feel to be back with AFC Wimbledon?
Kwesi - It's been good. The session we had today was decent. It was a good introduction for myself and I'm looking forward to the week. I'd had a good conversation with the gaffer during the summer and once I spoke to him we had a long talk about it and it was the only place for me to come back to really.
Callum - I think it's about the tenth time I've come back here! I came in last week, just to keep ticking over. I'd asked the gaffer if I could come in as it is local to me and he agreed. As the week progressed, we started having a couple of conversations and it all happened on Friday. It was a very quick turn around and he said 'would I be interested?' in coming back and I said 'absolutely' and that was that!
Q – How much are you looking forward to playing against Premier League opposition, when we take on Watford for the Football Manager Cup on Saturday?
Kwesi – Watford will be a good test for us to see where we are at in pre-season and we'll try and build on that performance from there.
Callum – You always want to test yourself against the best you can. Going into Saturday against Watford will be a good test for us and to get some minutes under our belts and start putting some things in place that we can take into the season, so it will be exciting. It'll be good to see the supporters – if they're happy about seeing me back?! (laughs) It'll be good to see everyone and some familiar faces. It feels like home, so that's good.
Q - How do you feel the squad and in particular the new players are coming together?
Kwesi- There are some good strikers here (referring to Lyle Taylor and Cody McDonald) and we should be a threat in this league and as long as we click together well and spark in training and on the pitch as well, we'll do alright.
Callum – George Long seems to be doing very, very well, he seems very composed and has great distribution for a goalkeeper so far. He definitely looks to be a safe pair of hands and you can tell that he is of good pedigree so I'm excited to see how he's going to perform this season as he's a very good signing for us. I've signed on Friday and I'm hungry to get out on the pitch!
Q – How much are you looking forward to getting back out there, in front of our loyal fans?
Kwesi – It's been a long time since I've played in front of these fans and I'm very much looking forward to it and it should be a good game!