Back in 2018, Lyle Taylor left AFC Wimbledon at the expiry of his contract, with the view of many being that the player simply opted to run down his deal due to dallying from the club themselves. And while it may never be known exactly why the star player of yesteryear chose to leave the club that showed him so much love, his move to Charlton Athletic indicates that a move up the ladder was a big factor. So, with a current star, in the form of Josh Neufville, currently having a deal that expires in the summer, the Dons may not want to repeat their costly mistakes from eight years ago.
There cannot be too much criticism directed at Lyle Taylor for wanting to climb up the ladder when it was appearing as though his Wimbledon deal will be expiring in the summer of 2018.
He had attention from Sunderland, who appeared like a real possibility for the Montserrat international until being refused, but it was Charlton Athletic who won out in the end following a sustained period of interest.
However, if the Dons had taken a considerably more positive attitude to the renewal negotiations, things may have turned out quite differently.
As was the done thing at the time, players were rarely brought to the club as stars. Instead, a lot of players were picked up as ‘almost rejects’ and were then given a good home in South West London where they could develop and flourish into stars, which was the case with Taylor.
But when it came to the renewal stage in 2018, the club almost stood off, accepted their smaller status in the game and just let Taylor walk away to their East London neighbours.
Albeit, money and other smaller factors also came into play when it came to decisions from both the player’s side of things, and the club’s, but the situation certainly did not look too great from the outside looking in when a star player, and at the time, leading goalscorer for the club in the EFL, left for absolutely nothing.
Although hindsight is always a strong tool, an earlier sale may have given the club a lot of money to reinvest and replace the void left, or contract negotiations much earlier than they seem to have occurred could have resulted in the striker serving for additional years.
Josh Neufville has been outstanding during his second season with the Dons, and his switch to right wing-back has been crucial to his brief but now incredibly successful tenure with the team.
However, with Taylor’s contract about to expire and promotion still far from certain, how can Wimbledon hold onto a man who is poised to win man of the Year like Taylor was?
Well, before anything else is said, it has to be said the Dons are possibly the greatest when it comes to dealing with stars that have grown with the side leaving at the end of their terms for nothing.
The most well-known example is Joe Pigott and others. Although his departure led to a brief decline in Wimbledon’s fortunes for a few years, the team has since bounced back to become one of League Two’s top teams with a healthy, lucrative player turnover.
Returning to Neufville, the first thing the Dons need to do is treat the player with the same love and passion that he displays on the field. These days, players are viewed as mere pieces in the puzzle of football, so it will be some time before a player, like the 24-year-old winger from Luton, who is adored by everyone at the club and enjoys being there, decides that his interests are better served elsewhere. The second thing the club can do is finally spend some respectable sums to cover current player wages rather than saving and scrounging to go hunting on the market once more.
Financially, the club is at a crossroads, but instead of taking the danger of attempting to find a similar player in the vast transfer market, why not just swallow the expense a little bit longer and see where an ever-developing player could take the side, along with his existing teammates.
Although the manager and the club will have the last say, Neufville has been playing exceptionally well and is Jackson’s most used outfield player this season, therefore it is quite unlikely that he is not a wanted player in SW19.
Time will tell whether the dallying from the club has, once again, like it did all the way back in 2018 with Taylor, prompted a player of Neufville’s caliber to begin to look elsewhere and follow up on any interest, potentially from higher levels, to move on to upon contract expiry with the Dons.
Leave a Reply