AFC Wimbledon confirm managerial appointment of 39-year-old | OneFootball

AFC Wimbledon have confirmed the appointment of Johnnie Jackson as the club’s new first-team manager.

The Dons, who were relegated from League One in the 2021-22 season, were unable to keep interim boss Mark Bowen around after he accepted an executive role at his former club Reading of the Championship.

The likes of David Artell and Daryl McMahon were linked to the vacancy at Plough Lane, with Football League World revealing last week that the former had already had initial talks with the hierarchy at Wimbledon.

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1. When was AFC Wimbledon founded?

2000 2001 2002 2003

But it is former Charlton Athletic boss Jackson who has been appointed on a two-year deal.

Jackson’s only experience of senior management came in League One in the 2021-22 season, when he initially replaced Nigel Adkins at the Addicks as the club’s caretaker manager.

His good results led to him taking up the offer of becoming the permanent boss of the Londoners, but the good form could not be maintained and in the end, Charlton finished in 13th position.

Addicks owner Thomas Sandgaard opted not to extend Jackson’s contract, but he has now fixed himself up with a new club ahead of the 2022-23 season.

This could end up being a really shrewd appointment by the Dons.

Jackson clearly has something about him as a manager and a coach as he was able to get a good short-term run out of Charlton’s players before things went awry.

It is a step down now to League Two for the former midfielder, but he is arriving at a club with a lot of talented young players and presumably little to no egos, so it may be easier to get his ideas and messages across.

Wimbledon will be gunning for immediate promotion back to the third tier, and Jackson’s arrival may end up being a real coup.