Dons head coach Mark Robinson: I’m not interested in setting goals intent on my own self-preservation

AFC Wimbledon head coach Mark Robinson has opened up further on his determination to transform the club’s mindset – even if that means he doesn’t “fulfill his own expectations” as a result.

The Dons chief has already spoken of changing the club’s outlook after they secured their League One survival last term.

“I think possibly,” said Robinson when he was asked if the old Wimbledon attitude had been lost a little during their time in League One – something he alluded to when discussing the club’s mindset following the 3-0 win over Ipswich Town back in April.

“Talks of budgets and survival, it drains people. It drains fans and it drains people in the building. So I’m fully aware that if I’m going to be that person who’s going to be talking about succeeding, I’m putting my neck on the line.

“But the alternative is I live a life of self-preservation, where I’m playing down everything and I talk about budgets and so on, that would be my own self-preservation. What I’d be doing as the head coach of this football club is bringing everyone else down around me, because you wake up as a fan and your expectations are survival. So it’s not about me being delusional.

“I have to believe – and I have to get the players to believe – that we’re on an upward curve. And I do believe we will be, because if you get everyone thinking like that, then it’s worthwhile.

“You don’t want to wake up as a fan thinking about survival, you want to wake up believing you’re going somewhere.

“Again, that’s a mentality thing – that’s how we all need to be thinking. That was always the case with the academy.

“It wasn’t about not respecting who we were playing, but our big message to our players in the academy was that we wanted the opposition to wake up in the morning, as you do when you’re a kid, and think ‘oh, football today’ then realise you were playing Wimbledon and want to get back under the covers. That was our message to our academy boys, that was how we wanted to make the opposition feel.

“It’s no different now. We want the opposition to think ‘oh, it’s Wimbledon’. We want them to know what they’re up against, to know what’s coming. I know that means they’ll plan against us and have to match us, but that’s part of the love of football. It’s that complete mindshift.

“Like I said, if that means I don’t fulfill my own expectations, then it is what it is. No-one’s going to put more pressure on me than I put on myself anyway. It’s the way I think. I couldn’t sit here talking about what we can’t achieve, I’m only interested in what we can achieve.”

Part of that ambition is also the reason why Robinson isn’t setting a fixed target for his side next season.

“I don’t believe in putting ceilings on things,” the Dons boss added.

“As soon as you put a ceiling on anything, you’re automatically restricting what you think you can achieve. It will just be a matter of coming into work every single day to be the very best version of yourself – and the players knowing that we’re only looking up.

“We won’t go, ‘oh we want to finish tenth or ninth’. I just don’t understand that thinking. Because that’s how your brain works, if you say something like that and players are ninth, they’ll be thinking oh we’re doing okay. But you don’t want that mentality, so I don’t ever want to put ceilings on anything.

“All I want is we turn up and we’re going to be the best we can be every day, and then you constantly adjust where we’re going. If we’re performing above what people expected, then we look to go again. If we’re not, then we’re reflecting to get where we need to go.

“If the club are happy with sustainability, that’s great. But that won’t be the mentality amongst the players and staff.”