Four Lincoln City Players Who Played For The Wrong Manager

Dean Keates – Michael Appleton

Let’s start straight away with a player I’d love to have seen in the current setup. I always felt Keates was a player who we could have seen much more from, but he played midfield in a side that tended to bypass the middle of the park. That’s never a good combination.

He arrived at Sincil Bank in the weeks after our play-off defeat by Southend. We had seen plenty of him from his time at Hull and Kidderminster where he’d always shown himself to be a cultured and combative midfielder despite his 5’5 stature. He could pass, create and was a strong free-kick taker. I could see him sat in the double six in front of our defence now, nipping at heels and playing a key part in moving the ball from back to front efficiently.

His stint in a Lincoln shirt didn’t disappoint though; in his 21 starts he became a firm fan favourite always amongst the goals or the bookings. Two red cards in November and December kept him out of a couple of games, and he made his last Imps appearance in a 4-1 win at Sincil Bank against Barnet in January of 2007.

It was his supposed reluctance to relocate to Lincolnshire that got the better of him and he moved to Walsall, much closer to his family, in the transfer window. I do wonder if the style of play was also an issue, because less than a year after his decision to relocate for ‘personal reasons’,  he moved to Peterborough United, not that much closer to home than Lincoln.

Whatever the reasons behind his move, I would love to have seen him playing in a Lincoln side renowned for passing out from the back, giving him more touches on the ball.