TIME TEASER FOR THE DONS
THE biggest result in AFC Wimbledon’s history leaves chief executive Erik Samuelson feeling it’s all too good to be true but the delay in their Plough Lane confirmation means the Dons have a big decision to make.
One of football’s most romantic stories has another charming chapter as the League One club were essentially given the green light by City Hall to return to SW19, some 25 years after the Crazy Gang were booted out of Merton.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has reversed predecessor Boris Johnson’s decision to call in the planning application that already boasted unanimous council backing.
The proposed site, on the town’s Greyhound racing stadium, is yards from where Wimbledon began their ascent from the Southern League to the Premiership and is almost certain to now host an 11,000 seater ground which could then rise to 20,000.
The League One club, formed in 2002 by fans after permission was given for the original club to relocate to Milton Keynes, have won six promotions since they started.
Progress
Now, the story is complete and Samuelson (pictured below) said: “I think when we started in the Combined Counties Leauge if you had said the club would be in League One, and essentially with permission to be back at Plough Lane in just over a decade, you would have struggled to believe it.
“It’s almost too good to be true and it all has a beautiful symmetry about it. We’re going back home, now let’s go and put back down our roots.
“In terms of physical location, it’s an end to the story in a lot of ways. The rest of the journey continues of course – we’re an ambitious club who wants to see how far we can get. It will be a lot easier to go further with the new stadium.”
But the delay in getting the decision refereed back to Merton, who passed the plans ten-to-none last December, means there is serious doubt the club will be finally back in the borough by their planned date of summer 2018.
“It’s been a hiatus we’ve been in, a rather expensive hiatus but we’ve been looking forward to getting going again,” added Samuelson, a driving force behind the club since replacing Kris Stewart at the helm back in 2005.
Timeframe
“In terms of timeframe, it depends how quickly things move from now on and how much we are willing to spend if we want to accelerate the process to get in for the start of 2018 as we planned.
“Do we want to spend a whole lot of money and get in on time? We’ll see.
“There are a few hurdles yet to jump but once Merton confirm the application has been granted then there will be a genuine cause for celebration.”