Lasse Sorens-Gone

Today, the Imps confirmed that wing back Lasse Sorensen has been sold to Huddersfield Town for an undisclosed fee.

It’s a move we didn’t see coming – we were certainly fearful of losing Lukas Jensen and Ethan Erhahon, but I genuinely didn’t expect Lasse to go. Not because he isn’t good enough, but I figured if anyone had the sort of money lying around that we’d be asking, they would spend it on a sexier position. Today, as they did with Toff, they spent it on one of our wing backs.

“While we’re sad to see Lasse leave, he does so with our respect and affection for how he has represented our club with such distinction on and off the pitch,” said Director of Football, Jez George.

“As we were unable to extend Lasse’s contract last season, despite all of our best efforts, we knew that if we didn’t sell him this summer he would leave on a free transfer at the end of the season.

“While we would obviously have preferred for Lasse to move to a club in the Championship, that option didn’t exist. Huddersfield were professional throughout our negotiations and met our valuation after we turned down two offers, so we concluded that it was in the best interest of Lincoln City to agree a deal.”

Losing Lasse will hurt. He was one player we loved to do well. He’s likeable, a player who gelled with supporters, and who seemed to engage with us all the time. When my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, Lasse was one player who recorded a get well message. When you bumped into him at the EPC, he didn’t just say hello, he’d stop and chat. Off the field, he was an asset. Ironically, just like Toff.

On the field, his time with City was a huge arc. He came with top billing, but after a single season, many were unimpressed. I loved his engine, but in central midfield, I felt he got lost. A couple of times he played right back under MA, he was awful. Then, one cold night against MK Dons, our own MK played Lasse at wing-back. The rest is history.

This is a blow, but the club wouldn’t sell if it wasn’t in our best interests. It’s going to sting, no doubt about that at all, and it means our recruitment team will now be going into overdrive looking for a replacement. I can’t come on here and pretend this didn’t hurt when I first heard about it, but it will be in the club’s best interests. Also, isn’t this what a club of our size needs to do? Find a player, get some good seasons out of them and move them on. Lasse is the new picture boy for the way we want to progress – we took a player, developed them, in this case even changing position, and then made a profit.

Let’s say the fee tops £300,000, with add-ons. That’s for a player who we know, more or less, would walk for nothing in a year’s time. The whole point of our recruitment is to develop and sell on. That’s how we progress. It’s like taking medicine to get better – it’s not nice at the time, but we do have to see the bigger picture.

I think some will say that selling Lasse shows we lack ambition, but I feel it could mean the opposite – it might be that we actually have long-term ambition, not short term. He cost a nominal fee, I believe, from Stoke and now he’s earned us a figure that we can reinvest and improve. Perhaps, selling one ‘Lasse’ will bring in two more. Who knows?

I do feel a bit sad at the news, but the older you get, the less a player leaving grabs you. Players come, players go, and a transfer doesn’t mean anything other than a man has been offered an opportunity he wants to take, and the club offered a deal they feel is acceptable. Like it or no, football is a business, and this is good business.

I knew we’d go into overdrive when I was down in Cornwall!