MK Dons 2026/27 Season Preview

Not content with winning promotion from League 2 last season, some in the MK Dons ecosystem feel like the team could be a shout to go one step further.

A lot of talk out of the club near the end of their promotion winning season last time around was that they wanted their promotion to be a launchpad to go further, with some whispers even suggesting the plan for this season could be to try and make it a double and fight for another promotion.

It’s certainly an ambition MK Dons have had on their minds for a while. The Dons were last in the Championship in 2016, after a single season stint in the second tier, and ever since their drop out of that tier, the ambition has been to return and try to build themselves as a presence in the second tier.

The closest they’ve come to ending their exile was in 2021/22, when a team overseen by Liam Manning fuelled by the likes of Scott Twine, Matt O’Riley, Harry Darling, Troy Parrott and others came within a whisker of getting automatic promotion. That season ultimately became a missed opportunity, given the immediate fall into League Two that followed.

One of the teams who beat them to that punch in 2022 was a Rotherham United side managed by Paul Warne, who now occupies the job in Milton Keynes. The Dons could certainly have worse in their corner as far as promotions from League One go, given Warne’s CV includes 4 previous promotions from the third tier to the second.

Naturally, such acumen and any other advantages would be handy. League One has always tended to be a competitive league, but this is a particularly stacked edition of the third tier of English football. The two obvious big fish in Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday will be seeking to avenge relegations last season, but as many as 12-15 other clubs in League One could yet see themselves as being at least a play-off challenger.

While MK Dons will be challenged to be among the top 6, the case in MK Dons’ favour will likely point to the League One-level talent they have at their disposal. 2025’s outlay included a number of League One level talents such as Aaron Collins, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Callum Paterson, Gethin Jones and Marvin Ekpiteta, with the January additions of Ben Wiles and Curtis Nelson likely also having the idea of preparing for the third tier as much as gaining promotion to it.

A number of low-end Championship or League One level talents also made their way in through the door. Some are Warne tried-and-true options, with wing-back Cohen Bramall and midfield Dan Barlaser having previously been part of promotion-winning Rotherham sides under Warne’s tutleage.

One intriguing player previously managed by Warne brought to MK is the club’s priciest incoming in the form of striker Sam Nombe, who returns to Stadium MK 5 years on from being shown the door by Russell Martin. The striker established himself as a goal-getter at the level during stints with Exeter and Rotherham, so naturally, expectations are high he can hit the ground running back in the Dons’ first team.

Another interesting recruit meanwhile is Ryan Wintle, who captained Cardiff to promotion last season but chose not to stay, and who was initially set to join Oxford only for a transfer embargo to cancel that transfer. The fact the Dons begin their league campaign at the Kassam Stadium certainly will make that an interesting start to life, but the midfielder could be in for a key role.

Experienced defender Charlie Goode and Australian winger Sam Silvera rounds out the additions for now, both of whom add some further League One experience, though a new goalkeeper and possible defensive reinforcements are said to also be on the agenda in the remainder of the month.

Whatever the alchemy is, this is a squad that may well need to hit the ground running. While it would be something of an upset for the Dons to win their Carabao Cup tie at Norwich tomorrow, the first two months of the season feature some juicy contests for the Dons to get stuck into.

A league opener away at recently-relegated Oxford, home ties against two sides who fancy promotion tilts of their own in Huddersfield and Leicester, grudge matches with Wycombe, Peterborough and AFC Wimbledon and a meeting with a Bromley side who snuck in ahead of MK to take the title all make for a fascinating beginning to proceedings.

The goal for Warne will be to make sure that he has something that can adapt quickly to this trial by fire. Whether it involves sticking to the back 3 that MK Dons pivoted to early last season or returns to the back 4 that Warne initially planned to us, the Dons boss is a man who knows how to get promoted from the division, and will be aware to meet these expectations will be a challenge.

Certainly, MK Dons do have the vibe of being a club with desires to test themselves further up the food chain than League One and to get to that elevated point as quickly as possible. It certainly creates an interesting equilibrium, given there could be a sense of letting merely the good of avoiding relegation or even making the top half on the first try back being seen as a disappointment, even though that would still be definite progress after three seasons stuck in League Two.

League One after all is an open division in 2026/27, studded with clubs who have been in the Championship and even Premier League in the last 10 years, to say nothing of multiple other clubs being unpredictable or the prospect of a surprise package that may have been expected to go down gate-crashing the party and getting in and among the promotion pushers. We’re also all aware that predicting the result of a 10 months season at the start is also something that can make you look very stupid when everything’s all said and done.

Still, stranger things than a push from the Dons have happened and they will back themselves to feel that they can answer the question of whether they can push onwards is a yes. It’s now over to the players to see if they can back this hunch up.