“HISTORY will judge us,” Pete Winkelman, the Milton Keynes Dons chairman, declares from beneath his hard hat, standing in the concrete shell of what will be a boardroom next July. Construction work on the club’s impressive new stadium is well under way and Winkelman is brimming with enthusiasm.

“Influences range from the Colosseum to Thunderbirds,” he says of the 30,000-seat stadium, which boasts an indoor swimming pool, a 120-room hotel, dine-and-view restaurants and a state-of-the-art pitch complete with synthetic weave.

But the MK Dons’ past, after the takeover and relocation of Wimbledon FC, is the club’s biggest stumbling block. This month the club reached an accord with AFC Wimbledon to return all the paraphernalia associated with Wimbledon FC to the London Borough of Merton. Under the accord, the Football Supporters’ Federation has agreed to recognise the body representing MK Dons supporters for the first time.

“We’re trying to move forward as a club,” Winkelman, who made his name as a music producer, said. “It’s like giving my dad’s army medals back to the regimental headquarters. We’re both new clubs and we came about because of what happened but we’re not the original Wimbledon.”

Tomorrow night’s Carling Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur will pit the MK Dons against Premiership opposition for the first time. “One of the biggest football clubs in the world is coming to Milton Keynes,” Winkelman said. “It’s an historic moment.”

In Martin Allen, the MK Dons have a manager with a good record in cup competitions, having taken his former club, Brentford, to the FA Cup fifth round twice in two seasons.

“It’s a big coup for us, getting Martin,” Winkelman said. “He’s very unusual. He’s like one of the artists I have worked with in the music business, like a star. He knows absolutely what he wants. If people respond and deliver him an environment where he can do what he wants, I believe he’ll be massively successful.”

But while the new facilities are being built, Allen’s office at the club’s training ground, shared with the local hockey club, is part utility cupboard, complete with vacuum cleaner and box of Christmas decorations.

It is a small space for such a big personality. “A lot of people think I’m angry, that I shout and I’m a cup-throwing-type manager,” Allen said. “But, believe it or not, I think I’m quite the opposite.”

Allen’s unusual motivational techniques have made headlines. While in charge at Brentford he plunged into two grimy rivers, once on a freezing March afternoon in Hartlepool and once before an FA Cup tie against Southampton.

“They all say: ‘He’s mad.’ And I just smile,” he said. “It’s not all as silly as people make out.” Such exploits, he added, are always reasoned. “I do not leave home every morning at half-past-six thinking ‘today I’m going to run across the dual carriageway next to the training ground, ducking in and out of cars at 70mph, to show bravery and quick feet’ ,” he said, although you wouldn’t put it past him.

The MK Dons’ form has dipped since the Carling Cup draw was announced last month; the side have lost three of their past six matches.

“The only thing that interests me is that our players have a good night,” Allen said. “What chance have we got? Tottenham is a team full of internationals; half of them have been playing in the World Cup. The only World Cup ours have played in was in the school playground.”

Winkleman, meanwhile, is focusing on the long term. “It’s not about now; it’s about the next hundred years,” he said. “And over the next hundred years, mark my words, Milton Keynes will be a very serious player in the football business.”