AFC Wimbledon are on the cusp of a great season, and after a January transfer window that saw yet another fan favourite go, manager Johnnie Jackson is still pleased with his squad as they look to build on their last two decent results.
As with any club that has ambitions of promotion, Jackson is weighing up options for his squad. Even though the loss of Ali Al-Hamadi to Ipswich Town was a huge blow, the club still has a lot of attacking options.
The deadline day deal that saw Josh Kelly arrive from Solihull Moors was something that the club was looking to tie up, but it was on the back burner until the sale of the Iraq international went through Then they acted swiftly to bring the hotshot in.
This has a knock-on effect on the front line as someone has to miss out. Kelly went straight into the lineup at Bradford City last weekend but failed to make an immediate impact in the goalless draw. Josh Davison dropped down to the bench.
It is 18-year-old Aron Sasu who could be the one who is left in the dark after the January shakeup. Jackson now has to decide if the young attacker needs to go on loan or keep him in the mix in case some injuries or suspensions will affect the front line.
As well as Kelly, the Dons gained John-Kymani Gordon on loan from Crystal Palace, and Ronan Curtis came in after Jackson and his staff helped with his recovery after a long time out with an ACL injury. Josh Neufville, Ryan McLean, James Tilley, Omar Bugiel, and Harry Pell were already on the books and have been sharing duties in the first half of the season.
Talking to the South London Press, Jackson said. “The National League window is open for another month. We will monitor that.
“If Sas struggles to get involvement and minutes, and if we feel it’s the right thing to do, like it was with Morgan Williams, Paris Lock and Ryan McLean, then we will do that.
“But he has been involved probably more than any of us thought this season.”
Sasu has scored one goal so far this season in Wimbledon’s 5-2 win at Portsmouth in the EFL Trophy and has appeared well over 20 times.
“What we won’t do is leave ourselves short – he’s a good attacking option. But we have got a lot of options in that area of the pitch.
“It was the plan for him to go out on loan at the start of the season to play, but he did so well during pre-season and early on with us, that we felt as though we had to keep him around it.
Writer’s View
AFC Wimbledon are learning from some harsh lessons in the recent past. Their seasons have fallen away drastically at the turn of the year, through players being sold, bad injuries, and poor recruitment. They are already short defensively with their two most used centre-backs, Ryan Johnson and Joe Lewis, out for approximately a month.
Keeping Sasu on would make sense, but if he is now fourth, fifth or even sixth down the pecking order, it may be wise to get him some game time in a league that has been so beneficial to others in his situation at the club.