Roberto Di Matteo has signed a 1 year contract with the MK Dons and will be assisted by former Chelsea team mate Eddie Newton.

Newton, who also played for Barnet, Oxford United and Birmingham City has recently been coaching under 16's at Chelsea. He is best remembered by Chelsea fans for scoring in the 1997 FA Cup Final win over Aston Villa. Chelsea won 2-0 and the other scorer was a certain Roberto Di Matteo.

Also joining the team is former British sprinter Ade Mafe. Mafe was Millwall's fitness coach until recently but has also work with Chelsea.

MKDSA had a chance to briefly and exclusively grab a few minutes with Roberto Di Matteo and Ade Mafe today.

During our chat Roberto confirmed
 · He would be travelling up to MK each day from his London base
 · He had been studying facts and figures about the club and its players very hard for the last 3 or 4 days
 · He believes that loyalty is a very important part of who he is, whilst he understands that this might not be the  case for other people.
 · You shouldn’t rely on midfielders to be your leading goal scorers, and improved striking options were clearly a priority.


Ade confirmed
 · That whilst he understood the use of professional sports analysis tools such as Pro-Zone he didn’t place too much importance in them
 · He believes that a players mental attitude and fitness is vital to win matches
 · He will also be travelling to MK from his London base, and knows a little about the area as he has friends in Bedford
 · It can be difficult for a management team to build a close relationship with fans because of the nature of football.