Wilkinson in: AFC Wimbledon can have a dream week in the January transfer window with these 2 deals | OneFootball

FLW takes a look at two deals which would mark a great week in the January transfer window for the Dons

AFC Wimbledon have been a consistent threat in and around the promotion picture, with the Dons having occupied both automatic and play-off spots at points thanks to some solid home form at the beginning of the season, and some brilliant performances as of late to repair the damage done by a small blip during the Autumn period.

Now the January window has rolled around, however, and it is time that the club put some money where their mouth is and push to improve the quality of the squad with a great transfer window in order to seal promotion back to the third tier.

The Dons have had mixed results on paper from their forward line and are currently relying on the single threat of Matty Stevens to provide the goals, with Omar Bugiel having a quieter season than last, Josh Kelly slowly getting up to speed and Joe Pigott not living up to expectations.

With that in mind then, Football League World takes a look at two deals which would mark a great week and a dream come true in the January transfer window.

In: Conor Wilkinson

The Dons currently have a stacked forward line, with four different forwards all offering slightly different styles of play that allow manager Johnnie Jackson plenty of versatility up top.

Currently, the former Charlton boss has the target-man frame of Omar Bugiel playing behind the faster and sprightlier duo of Stevens and Kelly, and bringing in former Bolton Wanderers striker Wilkinson would mean that Bugiel is given more rest as the Dons enter a crucial period of the season.

The Lebanese international recently injured his groin, and with it, perhaps showed that playing him game after game with no early substitution has been the wrong thing to do by Jackson, and was always going to come back and bite him.

If Wilkinson were to be bought in, the 29-year-old would provide the perfect foil for Bugiel, and allow Jackson to rotate freely between two very similar strikers.

The 6ft 3in frame of Wilkinson currently boasts a 99% success rate in his aerial duels this season in the National League and a passing accuracy per 90 minutes of 100%, according to FotMob, which, aerially, puts him on par with Bugiel in League Two, with the current Dons forward boasting a 97% success rate.

Passing wise, however, Wilkinson beats Bugiel by a long stretch, with the Lebanese only able to achieve a 55.8% accuracy per 90 according to FotMob, and this could prove to be an important stat to Jackson.

The 42-year-old likes a player in that attacking-midfield/No10 role to be able to win the ball in any way possible, hold it up and bring others in to play. And while Bugiel has been able to achieve the first two with relative ease this season, that last part of his game has been lacking, and competition with better stats could prove a shrewd addition by Wimbledon.

A deal with a player only six months into his contract with his newest club does seem a stretch too far for a Dons side who cannot always afford to pay top dollar. However, given the fact he could be the perfect player to compete with Bugiel for a spot in Jackson's lineups for the rest of the season, it might be time to let Craig Cope have a shot at trying to make this deal work, especially with Wilkinson currently having an impressive season in front of goal at Solihull Moors.

The Director of Football at Wimbledon, Cope previously worked at Moors and has used his contacts to work his way to successfully signing Callum Maycock and Josh Kelly recently. It would be rather uncharacteristic for him to go for a player who is only months into his time at a new club and is nearing the dreaded, in football, age of 30, but stranger things have happened in the world of Wimbledon and his signing could prove to be a good addition to the squad.

Out: Joe Pigott

Though technically not a deal that brings anything to AFC Wimbledon, the best possible transfer deal they can make is to cut the loan of Joe Pigott short, if possible, in order to free up space and wages.

When the Kent-born striker rejoined the club this summer on loan from Leyton Orient, it was hoped and somewhat expected that a return back to a club that had big adoration for him, following his goalscoring feats for the side in previous years, would reignite his scoring touch and bring him back to form.

However, that has unfortunately not been the case. Instead, Wimbledon have seemingly got the version of Pigott that Ipswich Town, Portsmouth and Leyton Orient all had, a shadow of the physical, fox-in-the-box that Pigott had become.

In his 27 games for the club in 2024, he only scored four times, with only two of them being in the league and the other half of the goals scored across other cup competitions.

And now that promising forward Aron Sasu has returned, it looks as though Jackson is starting to lose faith in Pigott a little, with the former Gillingham striker not making an appearance from the bench in the Dons' Boxing Day draw at home to Swindon, or their final game of 2024 against Gillingham.

So, while it could be argued that sending out more promising youngsters should be the way forward with the Dons, with more and more players returning from the long injury list that Wimbledon had compiled, a deal to cut the loan of the out-of-form striker should be made to give the club the best scoring chance of achieving promotion, or at the very least, qualify for the play-offs come May.