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.
For many Dons supporters, the signing was very unexpected, but it makes a lot of sense in light of the impact he had on the team in the second part of the 23–24 season.
He was the last player signed by the Dons during the January transfer window when he first joined on deadline day.
When he first joined the team, he had stated that he wanted his football to speak for itself. However, there were some concerns about his seniority and the fact that he had failed to make an impression on a Mansfield Town team that was winning a ton of games and was guaranteed a berth 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.
Against teams like MK Dons, who despite their offensive danger, never really threatened the 35-year-old utility player in Wimbledon’s thrilling 1-0 victory in front of their home crowd at Plough Lane, he had some of his best performances.
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
Given that two of Wimbledon’s more recent arrivals, who were roughly 35 years old, were not successful, he will aim to demonstrate that age is simply a number and not a reliable indicator of talent.
Although Pearce has been unfairly branded as a failure at the Dons in this article, the truth is that they signed him with the expectation that he would be a valuable leader on the team for the two seasons he had a contract with the team, and he did not deliver on that promise.
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.
In contrast, Gunter was a total bust. Despite having 109 caps, the Welshman is the second-highest capped player in the nation and showed none of the skills he had demonstrated in previous years.
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 obviously been motivating in the locker room, establishing himself as a figure who will support the team’s morale while also providing the younger players with invaluable EFL experience at trying times.
Because of these factors, Wimbledon’s supporters and employees may be extremely sure that, for once, a seasoned addition won’t end up being a liability in the future.
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