Neal Ardley on AFC Wimbledon captaincy call

BY SAM SMITH

Neal Ardley has said that he is no closer to naming a new AFC Wimbledon club captain.

Former skipper Barry Fuller left at the end of last season to join Gillingham, leaving the Dons chief with the predicament of not having a leader among a youthful squad.

The Dons boss has rotated the captaincy in each of Wimbledon’s pre-season games. Tom Soares, Alfie Egan, Kwesi Appiah and Deji Oshilaja have all worn the armband on different occasions this month – but Ardley is taking his time before appointing a permanent leader.

Liam Trotter, pictured above, is another experienced contender for the captaincy.

“We’re not close to naming anyone at the moment,” he said.

“We’ve changed a hell of a lot of things within the training ground, within our culture and also within our playing style at times.

“I wanted to see who embraces it [the leadership role], who the players best respond to, who’s leading the dressing room and who’s carrying our messages across.

“We’ve shared the captaincy around and at the same time I’m looking around on a day-by-day basis to see who I think the leader should be.”

IMAGES BY PAUL EDWARDS