Death, taxes, and Lincoln City needing a striker in the transfer window. The only certainties in life.
How many times have we gone into the transfer window needing a striker? I suppose every club feels the same, but for us, it really does seem like every single year we say we need a striker. In the days of Danny Cowley, we carried three. Last winter, we had three and needed a fourth. This year, we have six.
Yep, six. Ben House and Jovon Makama are our starters at present, with Bailey Cadamarteri likely to now take one of those spots. Freddie Draper and Rob Street are the back up boys, one of those may well go out on loan. Many have also forgotten last season’s marquee capture, Tyler Walker, will also be back before Christmas. We’re taking no risks this season.
It’s nice to be 36 hours or so from the deadline, knowing that we won’t be hunting a striker because for so many seasons, we’ve been desperate for someone to come in and grab goals. Cadamarteri is not the first loan striker to join, and he won’t be the last. One wonders if he’ll be like any of these, the biggest hits and misses in the loan striker market over the years.
I’ve only picked players who have joined on ‘long term’ loans, in other words, for more than a single month, as per the old loan deals.
HIT – Davide Somma
Recency bias puts Joe Taylor as one of our best striker loans in recent time, but the very best of the best has got to be Davide Somma. He smashed nine goals in 14 games for us, staving off the threat of relegation in 2010.
He wasn’t really a risk – he’d been with Serie A side Perugia before us, and came from Leeds with a decent reputation. Injury later robbed him of the career he deserved.
MISS – Luke Plange
I don’t think any player has crashed and burned in quite the same way Plange did at the tail end of the 2022/23 season. I know he was top of our hitlist, a hitlist that contained at least two strikers who have since played regular Championship football, but Plange did not live up to the billing.
He played 18 times for the Imps, but started just four games. In his entire time in a City shirt, he had a single shot on target, and even that was ambitious – a lopping header from a corner that was more ‘hopeful’ than an actual effort.
HIT – Ashley Grimes
Grimes played at a bad time in a bad team. He came to us as a punt – he’d scored twice for Millwall in League One, but he wasn’t seen as a bright young thing as most loans are today. I wasn’t excited, but he certainly made his mark. He scored 17 times in 30 outings for us, with 15 in 27 in the league. It’s abhorrent how such a gifted striker with a good strike rate ended up being relegated.
He drifted when Delroy Facey got injured, and eventually signed for Rochdale, where he hit double figures in 2011/12 and 2012/13.
MISS – Jack Vale
One year ago. It was around 365 ago that we signed Jack Vale, injured, with fans unawares at the time that both Tyler Walker and Ben House were also injured. They were tough times, and it’s amazing how quickly we moved forward.
Vale impressed on his debut, steaming in as we beat Charlton 3-1, but he never really peaked. He scored once and got an assist, but all too often, he was a passenger. He only had two shots in all of his EFL outings for the Imps.
HIT – Joe Taylor
Of course, we’re all hoping that Bailey has a similar impact to Joe. It’s expected last season’s leading scorer will be unveiled by Huddersfield today, a huge capture for them, and a club who have reportedly won an extortionate bidding war for his services.
He was a massive success here, scoring goals in March that were unprecedented in Imps history. He ended the season with ten for us, 22 in total (including Colchester) and now deserves a stab with a bigger club. Just not in League One would have been nice.
MISS – Dan N’Lundulu
I still maintain that Dan N’Lundulu is a good player. he had all the attributes we needed – he was strong, had a nice touch and a bit of pace. He arrived at a tough time, after the break up of Appleton’s aspirational squad, and he couldn’t fill the boots left by Brennan Johnson. It was a big ask, and arriving injured, then picking up a second injury in his first game, didn’t help.
He scored once in 21 games and became something of a misfit toward the end of his spell here. Since then, he’s scored five in 31 for Cheltenham and six in 43 for Bolton, so maybe my judgment is wrong!
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