Dons Trust co-chair on Joe Palmer’s departure as AFC Wimbledon chief executive

Dons Trust co-chair Xavier Wiggins says that Joe Palmer’s departure as chief executive and AFC Wimbledon’s winless run are “very separate” matters.

Palmer stepped down on Monday after four years at the Dons.

He was brought in as chief operating officer in January 2018 before taking over from Erik Samuelson following his retirement.

Palmer oversaw the construction and move back to Plough Lane during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wiggins – asked about his exit – told the South London Press: “It’s absolutely fine, timing-wise.

“We had been speaking to Joe before, so it wasn’t a surprise to us,You have to prepare for that kind of thing. We set about putting a plan in place for the interim. We had to do that – we couldn’t leave ourselves with any gap.”

Wimbledon are on a 15-game winless run under head coach Mark Robinson and are two points above the bottom four in League One. Wiggins said:

“It’s not nice to be hovering above the relegation zone, but we absolutely have a strategy. You’re going to get bumps in the road when you’re trying to do stuff very differently.

“We’re trying to spend more time than the others on developing our own players. We’re giving players earlier opportunities for first-team action, younger than perhaps they would get elsewhere.

“Our younger scholars are going out on loan to play men’s football, which is an invaluable experience. Because of developing these players so well, and giving them the opportunity, we now find ourselves with a lot of value in our squad. Should they ever move on, it would serve us well financially.

“It’s very much a part of the strategy – it won’t always go smoothly.

“You can’t escape from the fact that it’s 15 games without a win, but it’s only six defeats. It’s tricky to be too damning so far. We are all fans and all feel it slightly differently.

“It’s really difficult for parts of the fanbase to understand everything that does go on because they’re not privy to all internal meetings and Dons Trust meetings, so it’s difficult to have a full understanding of what everyone does.

“You’re bound to get some people that would underestimate what Joe did – that would happen anywhere. Generally, that happens when people aren’t on the inside.

“They are big shoes to fill, but it’s a fantastic job for somebody if we do directly replace, which isn’t a foregone conclusion.”

The departure announcement revealed that Palmer will pursue other career opportunities but would stay to help Mick Buckley, interim chair of AFC Wimbledon, through the transition process.

“We have worked very closely with Joe all the way through, whether it be during the four years or right now,” said Wiggins. “We feel as though we have got it very much under control. He is very much going to help with the transition – it’s fully amicable.

“Mick starts on Monday, so the big work starts then. That’s for Mick to do what he needs to do – go round, speak to everybody and listen really carefully.

“We’re not in a blind panic – we will do it in the right time frame. He will work out what he thinks we need, discuss it with the board, and then we will take it from there.

“We are looking at what we need – whether it’s one person or a slightly different structure.”

Wimbledon moved towards a more sustainable approach over the summer to develop their own talent from within and bring in young players with potential – such as Luke McCormick and George Marsh – who could all be given a platform to perform consistently in a League One side, with their being the possibility to sell the players on for a profit at some stage of their careers.

When asked whether the Dons Trust board wanted to appoint somebody or a structure that continued this approach, Wiggins said: “We have developed a strategy – a five-year strategy – and one of our strategic objectives is Championship football in five years.

“Another is to be widely recognised for the work that we do developing players, so we’re certainly not going to be looking for somebody who will rip up the work, tare up the strategy and start again. We recently launched the strategy in December, so whatever the staff at the club and the board take, the main task is to deliver those five strategic objectives.

“Anything such as this brings opportunity, and we are excited to see where we go next. There is so much good happening around the place at the minute that we are very much on a trajectory.

“It really feels as though we are emerging from the pandemic. We are relatively new to Plough Lane and starting to see some of the revenue from having such a fantastic stadium come to fruition. We are doing pretty well on the finances.

“Clearly, we want our league position to be better, but we have got a proper football plan and proper football plan for development in place.

“As I said, it’s big shoes to fill, but we are really excited about the future of the club and the opportunity to appoint somebody or some people who would be fantastic additions.

“Now is the time for listening, working out how we can improve stuff and what we can put in place to give us a better chance of success.

“We are pretty calm and satisfied with where we are generally. We’re in a good place.”