AFC Wimbledon must feel that they've avoided past mistakes with John-Joe O'Toole signing: View | OneFootball

The recent signing of O'Toole should not be a cause of worry surrounding past mistakes made when signing Alex Pearce and Chris Gunter

Highlights

AFC Wimbledon made a defensive addition last week, signing John-Joe O'Toole permanently from Mansfield Town.

The 35-year-old had previously spent time on loan at the Dons in 2023/24, and in that time, won over many doubters.

So, now that he has signed for the club permanently, there is hope that he will not repeat the failings of Chris Gunter and Alex Pearce, who were both a similar age when they joined the Dons and did not live up to their previous billings.

John-Joe O'Toole signs permanently for AFC Wimbledon

O'Toole has joined up with Johnnie Jackson's men permanently ahead of the 2024/25 season, signing a one-year deal at the South West London-based club.

It was a signing fairly out of the blue for many Dons fans but one that makes a lot of sense considering the impact he had on the side during the second half of the 23/24 season.

He initially joined the Dons on deadline day in the January transfer window – their final signing in that period.

Upon joining the club, he had expressed that he wanted to let his football do the talking, with a few doubts surrounding his seniority and the fact he had not managed to break into a Mansfield Town side that were experiencing vast amounts of success in the automatic spots in League Two.

Speaking to the club back in January, he said: "I haven’t played as many minutes as I would have liked, and I’m trying to get back to where I need to be with my fitness, but if I can just get some minutes and work harder in training, I’m sure I’ll get there in not too long."

John-Joe O'Toole proved doubters wrong at AFC Wimbledon

The Irishman certainly took his opportunity to gain further minutes and fitness back at Wimbledon. His loan spell at the Dons saw him make 14 appearances in yellow and blue – with his performances in a makeshift back three also containing Lee Brown and Kofi Balmer helping enamour himself with Dons fans.

Some of his finer performances came against the likes of MK Dons, who, for all their attacking threat, never really troubled the 35-year-old utility man during the dramatic 1-0 win for Wimbledon in front of a home crowd at Plough Lane.

The former Northampton Town man's Wimbledon career had seemingly ended without a proper goodbye though, as he was dismissed in the penultimate game of the season, away to Tranmere Rovers. It had seemed a bitter end to what had been a highly successful loan spell that allowed Wimbledon's youthful exuberance to mix with experience and grit.

However, now that a permanent signature has been secured at the club, it is time to prove that, despite being 35 years old, age is just a number, and should not be an indicator of quality in football.

O'Toole will succeed where Chris Gunter and Alex Pearce did not at AFC Wimbledon

He will want to prove that age is just a number and not indicative of quality, as two of Wimbledon's more recent additions, who were around the age of 35, were far from successful.

Pearce has, perhaps, been rather harshly labelled as a failure at the Dons in this piece, but the fact is, they signed him as an experienced head that would be a staple in the team for the two seasons he was contracted to the club, and yet he did not produce that.

He would instead spend the majority of his first season fighting with the likes of Paul Kalambayi and Ryley Towler for a starting spot, and when he did find himself in the team, he would force tactics to be shifted so that the defensive line could deal with his lack of pace, meaning Wimbledon often operated a low block when he played, instead of the pressing game they had become suited to.

In his second season, he would not feature nearly as much as he did in his first, spending a good portion of the season out injured and then vastly out-of-favour on return, being behind the likes Joe Lewis and Ryan Johnson, as well as the defensive trio mentioned earlier in the piece that became a backbone that Wimbledon relied upon in the second half of the season.

Gunter, on the other hand, was a complete failure, with the Welshman, who is the country's second highest capped player with 109 caps, not displaying any of the talents he had done in years previous.

He, like Pearce, was not as fast as he had once been and often forced the defensive line to drop a little when he featured, and when the emergences of Huseyin Biler and Isaac Ogundere came about, he was ousted from the team and forced to spend the remainder of his final season in football making appearances from the bench when Wimbledon needed a bit of experience on the pitch.

He was a very mediocre signing for Wimbledon fans, who had believed that he would be a very decent one, as he never really produced any heroics going forward or helped much at the back.

O'Toole has, so far, proven to be the very opposite of the two former Reading FC defenders mentioned above, as he has not forced the Dons' backline to drop back to help deal with a lack of pace, which he has, similarly, not shown.

He has also clearly been inspiring in the dressing room, placing himself as a character in there that will help keep the squad positive but will help the younger members through tougher times with his vast EFL experience.

For these reasons, then, Wimbledon, fans and staff alike, will feel very confident that, for once, an experienced signing will not prove to be an Achilles heel further down the line.