Chelsea starlet Lewis Baker: MK Dons hoping to bring midfielder back on loan

MK Dons hope to bring Chelsea midfielder Lewis Baker back to the club next season to help in their assault on the Championship.

The Dons finished second in the 2014-15 League One campaign to secure automatic promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in their history.

But with one of the smallest budgets in the league, manager Karl Robinson is wary of the challenges the club face in building a squad that is competitive in the Championship and hopes former loanees Baker, 20, and Will Grigg, 23, of Brentford can return to lend a hand.

"We have a wage cap and have always had one," Robinson told BBC Three Counties Radio. "I can well assure you our budget will be in the bottom three next year. The chairman is trying to build a sustainable club and the way he is doing it has been sensational.

"We'd like Will Grigg, but what we want and what we can get are two different arguments. We know we are going to be bringing in strikers – we have already earmarked one or two.

"We would love Lewis Baker. But he is not our player, so wherever he goes next season, we hope it is us. But it is out of our hands."

England Under-20 international Baker joined Championship side Sheffield Wednesday on loan in January 2015. The highly rated midfielder was tipped to have an influential role in former manager Stuart Gray's side in the second half of the season after he claimed the Blues youngster could have a similar impact on the club to Ross Barkley, who enjoyed a spell at Hillsborough in 2012.

But after just four appearances for the club, Chelsea had exercised an option to recall the midfielder.

Shortly after, Baker moved to the Stadium:mk, scoring his first senior goal in just his second appearance for the club, helping the Dons in their promotion chase.