‘I’ll Drive You There’ – Part 2: The Players Lincoln City Saw Turn To Gold

Tanto Olaofe signed for Lincoln City this weekend, and one Charlton supporter made the infamous ‘I’ll drive him to you’ comment.

That sparked a look back at players who have proved just how unreliable those first impressions can be. In part one, I picked out ten former Imps we were quite happy to see leave Sincil Bank, only for them to go elsewhere and prove us spectacularly wrong.

This time, I’m turning the idea around. These are players who arrived at City without being particularly revered by the clubs they had left behind, whether supporters were indifferent to their departure, actively pleased to see them go, or simply unconvinced by what they had offered. Once they got to Sincil Bank, though, things turned out rather differently.

Fans are fickle and football is rarely as simple as deciding a player is either good or bad. Conor McGrandles has already shown that one club’s unwanted midfielder can become another’s key player, while plenty of others have found the right manager, the right system or simply the right moment in their careers after moving on.

The whole conversation began on the podcast, and after looking at the players we let go too soon, this is the other side of the argument: ten players whose former supporters might once have offered to drive them to Lincoln, only to watch them become a success at Sincil Bank.

Conor McGrandles

McGrandles is slightly different to some of the names on this list because we already knew exactly what he could do. His first spell at Sincil Bank brought 96 appearances in all competitions, including a central role in the side that reached the League One play-off final in 2021, before he turned down a new contract and joined Charlton Athletic in the summer of 2022.

The move to The Valley never really worked out. McGrandles signed a three-year deal, but managed only 12 league appearances across his time as a Charlton player and spent the second half of 2022/23 on loan at Cambridge United. By February 2024, he was back with us on loan, although an ankle injury restricted that return to just five appearances before bringing his season to an early end.

That could easily have been the end of the story, but City brought him back permanently in June 2024 and it proved to be an outstanding decision. McGrandles became a fixture in midfield again, making 42 league appearances in 2024/25 before playing 45 times during the following campaign as we won the League One title. His importance inside the dressing room was underlined when his teammates voted him Players’ Player of the Season following that promotion campaign.