This morning, we have been joined by EFL pundit royalty, Ali Maxwell from Not The Top 20.
Literally, it is the only podcast I listen to these days, and Chris is also a huge fan. Chris approached Ali to come on and talk about Lincoln, and he graciously accepted. The whole show will drop on YouTube tomorrow evening, as well as going out on audio, but as a teaser, we wanted to drop you a little taste of what was to come.
Chris and Ali chatted about all things Lincoln, from this season to what is coming up, and one question centred on recruitment, and what might need to change for the Imps as we move into the second tier. With ten years of knowledge from all three divisions, few are as well placed as Ali to offer insight into the pitfalls, or indeed where the big wins are.
“I think one thing that’s interesting when you move up to the Championship is that it seems to almost unlock recruitment of foreign players,” Ali said to Chris this morning.
“I know that the Imps have already done this with Vaflolomeev and have been very active in trying to at least be open-minded with signing players from overseas.
“But I think the reason that clubs start doing that when they move up to the Championship is almost financial necessity because if Lincoln now want to sign a League One player that they think has done really well in League One this season and they think can step up to the Championship, the chances are there will be a Preston or a Swansea able to pay them twice as much.
“So, quite quickly, if you’re only looking at the domestic leagues, your top targets are probably going to be out of the question unless you can be unbelievably creative and pick out someone from League Two to step up to the Championship, which is obviously quite a big ask.”
That led to where the real money is. The Imps have exploited ESC recently by getting in Ivan, who worked, and Erik Ring, who has had a moderate impact. In the past, we lured Lewis Montsma, who would have been huge were it not for his double ACL blow.
That’s still a market the Imps should be looking to exploit, in Ali’s experience as a pundit.
“I think in general, it’s considered that for value for money, being able to sign players without being blown out of the water by rivals, you do need to widen your horizons,” Ali added.
“You need to try and look overseas for players who play in leagues that would be dwarfed financially by the Championship, who’d be looking for a Championship move just to become a part of the English football system.
“This is where the money is. This is where a lot of the glory is. And I’ll be really interested to see how you guys approach that with the ESC slots that you’ll have available.”
If that has whetted your appetite, then you’re going to love what is coming up tomorrow, because that is just a couple of minutes of a 40-minute discussion covering all things Lincoln City, which is essential listening for any supporter.
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