AFC WIMBLEDON RELEASE EIGHT PLAYERS AS WALLY DOWNES REBUILD BEGINS

AFC Wimbledon boss Wally Downes has moved swiftly after steering the Dons to safety to announce the decision to release eight players from the squad. 

  Deji Oshilaja
  Andy Barcham
  Tom Soares
  Joe McDonnell
  Alfie Egan
  Osaze Urhoghide
  James O’Halloran
  Kane Crichlow

Speaking about players leaving the club, Wally said: “It’s been a heart-wrenching part of my job to make these decisions. You don’t like leaving players out when they’ve worked hard in training all week, but you have to. Sometimes as a manager you don’t give players enough credit and you think it’s a difficult conversation, but as long as you’ve got your reasons and you can justify it with the results, they understand football. They are prepared to listen to reasons and get on with their jobs, but some players aren’t and that’s when you have a problem. The players here, to a man, when I’ve explained my reasons for leaving them out, have been superb. It’s the squad that’s got us over the line, not the team, and the players out there every week".

Players under contract;
  Terell Thomas
  Scott Wagstaff
  Anthony Hartigan
  Kwesi Appiah
  Mitch Pinnock
  Dylan Connolly
  James Hanson
  Toby Sibbick
  Paul Kalambayi
  Tommy Wood
  Nik Tzanev
  Rod McDonald
  Anthony Wordsworth
  Shane McLoughlin
  Joe Pigott
  Ossama Ashley
  Jack Rudoni

Players offered new contracts;
  Will Nightingale
  Kyron Stabana

Wally has stated he is hopeful about Will committing his future to AFC Wimbledon, but we will have to watch this space for a little while. What is clear though is that we NEED to secure a Goalkeeper and cover first, ideally we would all love to see Aaron Ramsdale (right) come back for another season after his impressive spell on loan from Bournemouth, though he will not have gone unnoticed by other teams and maybe he'll have options higher up but it's still something to believe in.

Wally also spoke about Will Nightingale's future saying: “We’ve made an offer to keep Will at the club as he played a massive part in keeping us up in the last few months of the season. I’ve given Will a chance to play more and I think he has improved. Hopefully, he will stay with us and improve again.”

Players who were on loan are leaving Wimbledon to go back to their parent clubs;
  Aaron Ramsdale  (AFC Bournemouth)
  Steve Seddon  (Birmingham City)
  Tennai Watson  (Reading)
  Michael Folivi  (Watford)
  Jake Jervis  (Luton Town)
  Tyler Garratt  (Doncaster Rovers)
Again Wally Downes was quick to salute the contributions of loan players to Wimbledon’s League One survival. "The three boys I brought in – Ramsdale, Seddon and Folivi – all played massive parts. Aaron helped to get us numerous points. Steve got us the vital goal in injury-time at Luton and what he was doing in their six-yard box at that time I don’t know! Michael also popped up with a couple of goals and played really well when he was called upon. Those players came in and they’ve enhanced their careers with us, but they also enhanced our season. We gave them a little ride that they will never forget. We wish them well and we will continually follow their careers for what they’ve done here.”

In addition to all the above Egli Kaja, who has struggled with injuries since returning from a loan spell at Scottish Premiership side Livingston, will be invited back for pre-season training after his contract expired.



The Club and the Supporters wish to thank those players leaving for their contributions to the club surviving this season and wish them every success in their future careers. 

Hopefully we will see some new signings soon enough but that will take time and many contracts will not expire till end of May so we will have to be patient.