MK Dons 2025/26 Season Preview

For the first time since their 2004 formation, MK Dons find themselves preparing for a third straight League Two season and the expectation is for this to be the one that ends in promotion.

This would if nothing else avenge each of the last two campaigns, when the Dons were talked up pre-season as contenders for promotion. For very different reasons, the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons failed to make that ambition, with the former being a wild ride that ended in play-off failure, while last season was just an unmitigated failure.

2025/26 therefore represents the Dons’ latest attempt to gain promotion and it would be safe to say that a first full summer with their new owners after last year’s takeover sees this aspiration backed by some serious cash.

Towards the end of last season’s disaster, MK Dons turned to Paul Warne as the pick for new manager. This was seen as a coup for a club that were on course to finish in the bottom 6 in League Two, given that they had just landed a manager whose CV includes 4 promotions from League One to the Championship.

Ahead of his first full season, Warne has duly been allowed to recruit, with several players that could do a job for League One and even Championship sides coming through the door into Stadium MK.

The headline signing is that of Aaron Collins, signed for a club record fee from Bolton Wanderers after being top scorer for the Trotters last season. It’s seen by many outside Milton Keynes as a coup to convince Collins to make such a leap of faith, and promising form and performances in pre-season certainly indicate he is likely to be a key presence towards determining the Dons’ fate.

Winger Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was also seen as something as coup, coming from Warne’s former club Derby, while plenty have been impressed by other signings such as Rushian Hepburn-Murphy from Crawley, former Stockport man Will Collar and Bolton’s Australian full-back Gethin Jones.

With Sheffield Wednesday’s Callum Paterson making for a surprise move from the Championship’s crisis club to MK Dons, it adds to a huge roster of attacking firepower for the Dons to have at their disposal, as well as hinting there could be elements of the Dons thinking beyond this season to have a base to work from in upper tiers assuming promotion is achieved.

Given the likes of Alex Gilbey, Dan Crowley, Scott Hogan, Callum Hendry, Jonathan Leko, Aaron Nemane, Conor Lemonheigh-Evans, Liam Kelly and others also remain as attacking options, it certainly hints the Dons could if they wanted to truly try for a “we’ll just outscore you” approach if they truly wanted.

While this isn’t necessarily the blueprint, Warne’s arrival looks set to facilitate a pivot for playing style.

The new Dons boss was one of several who spoke near the end of last season about seeking to move on from the MK Way and a lot of that was on display in the Dons’ pre-season commitments.

In the Dons’ friendlies, a pivot has been noteworthy. The formation looks to be a change from the back 3s that have dominated most of the last 8 years or so at Stadium MK in favour of a 4-2-3-1, though no doubt with the tactical versatility as required.

There was talk of trying to be a more direct team than relying on possession, an attempt to maximise set-pieces and use of a fluid front attacking unit with players that can rotate and play in multiple positions in a match. Hints of this were there in the friendlies, though it will naturally require the work to make sure this can be consistently laid down in proper competition.

One of the main things will certainly be about trying to create a change in atmosphere. The last 3 years have certainly brought about plenty of despair among Dons fans, whether in the entirely avoidable relegation in 2023, the late season collapse in 2024 and just utter misery between Christmas and Easter 2025. Creating a defiant atmosphere that can feel more resilient to shocks and make life hard for visitors and rivals is surely something that would stand Warne’s bunch in good stead if they can create these conditions.

An element that could be worth tracking with how well the Dons is in the defensive area. Last season, defending was a weak spot with the Dons conceding a load of rather avoidable goals and it probably hasn’t helped set-up the defensive side of the play that there have already been injury problems.

All of Jack Sanders, Laurence Maguire, Sam Sherring and Nathan Thompson missed parts of pre-season with injuries, while Luke Offord has had injury problems of his own at other stages of his career and indeed time in MK, with concerns also potentially there for full-back depth beyond new recruit right-back Jones and left-back Joe Tomlinson.

This will certainly be a different season with the defence in any case, with long-term captain Dean Lewington choosing to retire from the sport at the end of last season.

The defensive side of the game is certainly something to work on generally. With MK Dons’ last two seasons having been defined by defensive collapses, avoiding another round of this feels like an essential.

It will be natural to expect the competition to be fierce. Last season saw a fiercely competitive push for automatic promotion – even if it almost became last one standing with the top 5 all dropping points on multiple occasions in the run-in – and with this league traditionally being competitive, it makes sense it will be a fight once more.

MK Dons do find themselves keeping company as one of the promotion front-runners. The likes of Chesterfield, Salford, Walsall, Bristol Rovers, Swindon and Notts County are all possible contenders, with National League champions Barnet picked by some as a potential wild card, but there are many who see MK Dons as a name worth backing in the upcoming promotion fight.

This however makes this season one where MK Dons need to live up to this tag. The finance, the coaching staff renovation, the new signings and the vibe is there that this is the season MK Dons can return to League One, but that’s merely the gauge looking at MK Dons on paper.

We’ve seen from recent seasons that a team who look like promotion candidates on paper can often make that paper look like it came from a parallel universe to the one the team actually competed in. The Dons’ mission is therefore one where they need to live up to the billing they’ve earned, and we wait to see if they can do just that.