Seems positive - he has a decent pedigree and played 20+ games in L1 last season, including featuring in the MK Dons' playoff games. Good move MA, good move.
he played for MKdons saturday and was meant to be one of two standout players against kettering. what does this mean for callum davies ? him and essam have played youth football togeather for six odd years, surely thats worth a shout !
From what I've gathered from an exiled MK fan, Flanagan can play anywhere among the back four. Could be a shrewd bit of business.
He could play left back or right back then but my problem is we have signed him till January, we don't want to get used to him in the team do well and lose him because then we could be back to square one with a place in the team weak.
Dead right Hoadie. Loan players were the kiss of death last season. One player for a season might be an advantage and a single loanee if a specific situation arises (eg covering an injury), otherwise forget it.
Yeah I don't see the point in bringing in a loan player for that amount of time at the start of the season, I would understand it if we brought someone in short term to cover someone if they were injured for the start of the season like Flitney but a defender, I don't think so as that is a place which need strengthening and I don't want to get used to us having a good defence just for this lad to leave at the end of December, the problem is not just going to be upto then it won't just go away fro January onwards so I would be interested to see who else we will bring in as in my opinion we need to sign at least 2 defenders still.
Maybe we might get him on loan and then sign him afterwards . E.G Jo Kuffour although hopefully he performs better than him . UTG
It seems to me that the MK Dons manager doesn't really want him. He sent him out on loan last season, and according to their local paper its now left them light at the back and Karl Robinson is looking to sign another defender to replace him. I wouldn't be surprised to see us get him perminately come January. It doesn't seem to make much sense to send him out on loan and then have to buy a replacement. The MK Don fans refer to him as "faultless" Flanagan as they rate him so highly. Maybe Robinson doesn't want to upset the fans or maybe the chairman,by selling him, so letting him go on loan and selling him at Christmas if his replacement is OK, might be a way of getting rid of him without any hassle.
We have the MK Dons youth academy on a 4 day residential at Stowe in Buckinghamshire where I work. Spoke to one of the coaches this lunchtime about Tom. He said that he has a big future, but at the moment is unlikely to displace the main two centre halfs, so it made sense to send him out on loan.
Interestingly it seems he hasn't even been handed a squad number... http://footballsquads.co.uk/eng/2012-2013/flone/mkdons.htm
