Dons boss makes future transfer window admission

Johnnie Jackson admitted AFC Wimbledon will have to recruit players with a history of ‘robustness’ next season to ensure that they do not have another suffer a similar injury crisis.

The Dons boss also admitted that the club lost their two best players in the January window when Ryley Towler was recalled from his loan spell and sold to Portsmouth and attacker Ayoub Assal sealed a move to Al-Wakrah.

The former Charlton midfielder was without Josh Davison, Alex Pearce, Lee Brown, Diallang Jaiyesimi and Harry Pell for Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to relegation candidates Crawley.

Jackson has been forced to recall youngsters Isaac Ogundere, Alfie Bendle and Luke Jenkins from their loan spells in order to fill his bench in League Two.

“We lost arguably our best two players in January in Assal and Ryley Towler,” said Jackson.

“Towler was out of our hands and I understand the reasons behind selling Assal.

“But on the pitch, they’re a big, big loss.

“I think Assal has still created more chances for us this season than anyone else – he was arguably our best attacking player. 

“We brought DJ in as a close to a like-for-like replacement as you’re going to get, and he’s injured. 

“The football club has to do things right financially.

“The nature of Ayoub’s meant that there was no choice in the matter – his buyout was met and that’s that.

“I was disappointed, but the boy wanted to go. On a personal level, I was gutted.

“I picked him every week because of his qualities, but he was also robust enough to play every week.

“That’s what we haven’t got at the minute. We have a whole host of injuries and people who aren’t robust enough to churn out the games.

“We’ll be keen to recruit a certain type of player [next season] that’s got a history of playing games and a robustness to play 30 or 40 matches a season, so we’re not in this sort of situation next year.”