"Dean Lewington reflects on the tumultuous history between Wimbledon and MK, expressing no issue with the discord. He notes that the club's essence has significantly transformed, vastly diverging from its state two decades ago."
In the diesel-soaked arena of English football, the upheaval of 2003 remains a bone of contention. Two decades ago, the Wimbledon Football Club left its cherished south London neighborhood for the pastures of Milton Keynes, a stunning shift that was green-lit by the football association just 16 months earlier.
What followed was the renaming of the club to Milton Keynes Dons, a move that sent shockwaves through the club's original fanbase and the wider football community like a knockout-punch at the twelfth round.
Lewington's Perspective
Defender Dean Lewington, who made his debut for the club that year and went on to pile up 917 appearances before hanging up his boots this summer, is the ideal interlocutor to share his thoughts on the seismic change.
"When the club was lurching towards administration, players were guttered and offloaded left, right, and centre. The move came as a shock, but given that we weren't first-teamers yet, the shift didn't bother us much," Lewington shares with our site. "Within six months, most veterans had been shooed off. It left us, the youth lads, feeling like we were being handed the keys to a shiny new Lambo. There were plans for a swanky new stadium, a training ground - it felt like a big ol' opportunity. Hell, we were at the brink of collapsing entirely, and moving seemed lighter than the alternative."
Despite the passage of time, the rebranding still stirs dissent, a fact Lewington acknowledges.
"The nails this still gets hammered with. Some adore the club, while others keep using it as a bludgeon. Years down the line, the stink hasn't quite cleared up. The club has embrace the thorn in its side and grown comfortable in its own bathed-in-controversy skin," Lewington continues. "Initially, there was a sense of uncertainty about how to handle it, but now, it's just simmering in the background, like a constant low hum."
AFC Wimbledon Inception
Disgruntled Wimbledon supporters had had enough and looked for ways to preserve the legacy of the club. By 2002, when the relocation was officially approved by the FA, a groundswell of sentiment led to the creation of AFC Wimbledon, a phoenix club that took root in the shadows of the fallen Wimbledon.
The animosity between the two clubs still lingers, something that Lewington realizes to his bones. "Let's set the record straight – it takes raw hatred to capture the essence of it," Lewington muses, "I remember before our first meeting, the coppers had to pull us aside for a heart-to-heart because we were both ex-Wimbledon players. They wanted a security detail on our tail just in case chaos ruled the day. It's always been a volatile soap opera, and I'm okay with that. I used to hold court in Wimbledon's bustling nightlife circuit, and I never felt threatened.
But as I aged and networked with AFC fans, I found they were appropriately angry about the club and its rebranding. They weren't fans of my team, but they were willing to discuss the mess over a pint or two if we kept it civil. The booing, the whistling – that's just a part of the game."
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"Despite the creation of AFC Wimbledon, a response to the relocation of the original club to Milton Keynes, the rebranding of the football club still stirs dissent, even years later, as former player Dean Lewington acknowledges."
"In the European leagues, the Premier League included, the animosity between the original Wimbledon Football Club and AFC Wimbledon, born out of the 2003 relocation, remains a significant topic in sports analysis, with Dean Lewington, a former player for the club during that tumultuous time, offering unique insight into the ongoing conflict."
