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Can fans forgive MK Dons?

MK Dons still divide fans.   Some see them as a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern game, others argue that it is time to bury the hatchet.  AFC Wimbledon are back in their own ground near their spiritual home, albeit potentially two divisions below the club some call the Franchisees.

The view of the club as the EFL villains is increasingly generational, with younger football fans reflecting more kindly on the club’s recent achievements than those who remember what happened to Wimbledon 18 years ago.

“We’ve been labelled,” says Ross Duffy of the MK One podcast. “If you compare us to Sunderland or Sheffield Wednesday, our fanbase isn’t as big, the attendances show that (their average of under 10,000 this season is less than a third of Sunderland’s). But it doesn’t take away from the fact that we are a tight fanbase. Whether you transitioned with the move from Wimbledon to Milton Keynes is a whole different story [I think very few did], but having a massive fanbase doesn’t dictate the football on the pitch.”

Milton Keynes has a population of around 300,000 which should be enough to sustain at least a League One club, but many people who live there have continuing allegiances to easily accessible Premier League London clubs.

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