Ollie Palmer

It’s not often you’ll hear me speaking positively about Palmer, the Marmite Hollywood star. I tried to see his virtues, and I even went as far as penning an apology to him, but I never understood the attraction. Time and again, he proved me wrong, of course but he wasn’t a fit with Dany’s side.

I’m told he proved us all wrong at Crawley, scoring nine in 19 games. Considering he scored eight in 45 for City, there’s something they’re doing right we didn’t. Then came Wimbledon and Wrexham, and now Swindon, where it’s hard to argue he isn’t a good player.

That’s where I feel he’d be a good Keith player. He wasn’t great in the air, but Keith loved a surprise; he loved a player who was unpredictable. Most of all, he loved a striker. He spent his entire Imps tenure looking for a number nine. It might have been Palmer.

He could go long to Palmer if he wanted, but he could also get numbers around him centrally, which we couldn’t commit to. Keith’s 5-2-3 would have given Palmer some support from the sides, Francis Green and Yeo often playing either side of Dene Cropper or Gary Taylor-Fletcher.

Maybe, in 2003, Ollie Palmer could have won me over.