Six Former Lincoln City Players Doing Surprisingly Well After Leaving The Imps

Up until recently, it’s fair to say players leaving the Imps went one of two ways.

Until maybe 2018/19, a player either left the Imps to trawl the non-league circuit, or they moved up a division, became a fringe player, and trickled back down within a season or two. Loan players were the same, we’d have what looked like a decent player on loan, and within a year or two he’d be in our division, or lower.

You could usually spot the players who were heading down when they left us. No disrespect intended, by the way, but Remy Longdon, Alex Bradley, Akeem Hinds and Lee Angol were all players who left us and never really settled afterwards. They have good careers in the non-league, but they don’t become a club legend anywhere else, or have Imps fans raising an eyebrow and saying, “I’m surprised how well they’ve done”.

A handful do. Some have to fight back from adversity, but it happens. In the days of smaller squads, the likes of Wayne Turner, Wayne Biggins and Devon White probably surprised a few after they left Lincoln, and in the modern age, with such a high turnover, even more players go on to have me scratching my head, wondering if they just sorted themselves out, if they have a good agent, or if maybe the Mighty Imps just weren’t a great fit.

Here are five recent former Lincoln City players who have surprised me with their post-Imps career.

Hakeeb Adelakun

Let’s be honest, at one point Haks looked done. Loaned to Gillingham, he flopped. I was told unofficially, in the 2021/22 season, he was the only player who didn’t get a single vote for Player of the Year. He was a pariah, disliked by his manager and unappreciated by the fans.

Then, as we labelled it, the Return of the Haks. His brace against Charlton was a seismic moment, a rebirth in front of the manager who killed his career. He still didn’t really fit at City, but a League Two move beckoned and he found what many assumed was his level.

This season, he’s back in League One with Doncaster, and his arrival has coincided with them going from relegation fodder to likely survivalists. Still only 29, he has a goal and an assist for Rovers, and is seen as a great capture for them.