Cambridge United winger Saikou Janneh backed to improve as a player during AFC Wimbledon loan stint

Cambridge United head coach Mark Bonner believes that Saikou Janneh will become a ‘better player’ during his loan spell with AFC Wimbledon.

It was confirmed on Tuesday that the winger, who joined the U’s on a two-year deal in the summer, would spend the remainder of the campaign with the Sky Bet League Two club.

Janneh has been limited to just one league start for United this term, and with players coming back from injury and Bonner keen to bolster his ranks in the transfer market, it has been decided that the 23-year-old’s development would best be served by gaining regular match action elsewhere.

“He’s obviously struggled for starting appearances and he’s not going to get many of those (at United) between now and the end of the season. He’s behind some of the others to be fair,” said Bonner.

“He can have a bit-part between now and the end of the season – 10 minutes here, five minutes there, 20 minutes here potentially, sometimes in the squad, sometimes not in the squad. But you measure it up and if there’s an option where he can get 20 games somewhere, he’ll be a better player come the end of the season then if he’s a bit-part here.

“For his development he needs a run of games that he has been starved of. The difficulty for any player is if you’re out of the team for a long time, when you then come into the team you’re in a worse position to be at your best and really impact the team.

“The way we’re looking with the team, if we can add what we want to add, we’re going to develop a number of different ways of playing, a number of different shapes to play and it might be less likely that his game minutes are fulfilled here.

“In making sure we’ve got the right number of players to work with and we’re not over-cooked with bodies, we’re certainly getting a lot closer to adding to the squad and some of the injured players coming back, so we know we’ve got good numbers and good quality.

“It creates an opportunity where Wimbledon were desperate to sign him from the beginning of the window and over the last few weeks it’s become more and more likely that he’s become less likely to play.

“That development time is best served elsewhere. He’s got a lot of promise and a lot of potential. We knew in the summer with the window that we had we were adding potential to the squad rather than starters in a lot of cases and obviously we've got to try and strengthen the team now and therefore it makes it a little bit harder (for Janneh to play).

“But that potential is still there, he just needs to be playing games to get to the level we need him to be at.”

Janneh could make his debut for the Dons at home against Stockport County on Saturday.

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