Five League One Players That Would Suit a Championship Lincoln City

Lincoln City are not there yet, and we can’t celebrate anything until we are. This article isn’t getting ahead of itself; it is the usual article responding to a Patreon request.

I was asked which League One players would feasibly do a good job for the Imps in the division above if we were to go up. The remit was to pick players we might be in with a chance of signing, not Lorent Tolaj here, who would fit our style of play.

It’s taken some research, and Rotherham’s tepid performance at our place caused me to scrub Ar’jany Martha off, a player who did impress me in our first game against them. I’ve put some time into this and come up with a list of five players I think could fit us.

I wanted to pick players who were right in terms of positions. If we were to go up, I think we’d need to look at some of our experienced players, Sonny Bradley, Adam Reach and Tendayi Darikwa, and think, ‘What comes next?’ All three would likely have a big role to play after any promotion, but would that be for a full season? Would that be with a view to the following season?

Perhaps not, that’s just life. If we step up, the level goes up, everyone’s age goes up by a year, and evolution will naturally occur. I suppose that is the sad thing about football, every success is simply followed by a question: what next?

On the podcast, we decided that Lincoln City in the second tier would probably be competing with Huddersfield, Reading and the like in the division below. Our wages up there would be comparable to their wages down in League One. The question would be whether we could sell trips to Wolves and Stoke over away days at Bromley and Burton.

That’s where this list comes in. If we could, these are the players I could see filling a role. Could we afford their transfer fees? Maybe, maybe not, but these are the players I could feasibly see stepping up to a lower-end Championship side, who possess the profile and numbers that we might like.

Also, I haven’t included players currently on loan in this division who might interest us in the league above, such as Jamal Baptiste, who impressed me for Rotherham, but is on loan from Sheffield United.

Enjoy.