MK Dons promotion chase frustrates Pete Winkelman

MK Dons chairman Pete Winkelman has said his side's continued pursuit of the Championship is proving a "very frustrating" endeavour.

MK, play-off semi-finalists in the past two seasons, are 11th in League One.

"I can't grow the football club if I can't get it promoted. And I'm starting to get very frustrated about that," Winkelman told BBC Late Kick Off.

"I want to be promoted. It's my biggest thing - the one thing I think needs to happen to the MK Dons."

Winkelman has continued to invest in the Dons since fronting a consortium to buy the club in 2004, but has yet to see the Buckinghamshire side mount a sustained push for automatic promotion.

The current campaign has been blunted by injuries to key midfielders Stephen Gleeson and Luke Chadwick and the Dons are 10 points off the play-off pace.

Winkelman, speaking to fellow chairmen Darragh MacAnthony of Peterborough United and David Cardoza of Northampton Town for a Late Kick Off East feature, added: "This year we've probably spent the most on our player budget than we have for many years.

"At the end of the day that doesn't necessarily convert into results. It's been a really, really tough few weeks because you lose your best players and then you get suspensions.

"Anyone will tell you that if you can't keep the right team together, a constant team together, you're not going to get where you want to."

The BBC has found that more than two thirds of Football League clubs who responded to a survey say they are worried about the financial health of clubs.

There have been calls for sides out of the Premier League to receive a larger share of the game's television revenue.

But Winkelman has said that will not improve the long-term financial welfare of clubs.

"The trouble with the TV money is, that however much anybody gives any of us, we're going to spend it," he said.

"You end up not putting the club into a healthier position just because you've got more money.

"There's no doubt there have to be moves in football over the next few years to make sure there is a sustainability."