One of the more interesting Lincoln City transfer sagas of the summer focused on Oumar Diakité, the Ivory Coast international who played at the 2026 World Cup.
When news broke that we might be interested, it felt like crazy paper talk, but that was not the case. We reported it straight away, not because we had inside knowledge, but because it did feel right. It didn’t come from an agent-led journalist, or a site designed to get clicks; it felt authentic.
That’s because it was, and in an exclusive interview, Jez George has lifted the lid on the interest, explaining what happened with the player, from our initial interest to him first apparently turning down the Championship, then being linked with Bolton, and finally him moving to Sturm Graz this week.
“I don’t mind going into some detail here because it was so well documented,” Jez told me. “It’s probably so random that you knew there must be some truth in it because it was too random for there not to be.
“In this case, there was an individual or company in England with a mandate to bring that player to England. That’s the contact we initially go through because we’ve probably got no idea that this player is available or wants to come to England.
“Once we have a discussion with the person who has the mandate for that player, we can do our work on that player, and probably numerous players, to see whether he’s one who fits our profile and who we think fits our game model.”
Once that work is done, it begins to get complicated because, as Jez explains, there isn’t a single agent involved in the deal, but a chain of people all with a metaphorical finger in the pie.
“Potentially, when a club is looking to sell a player, an agency may have a mandate from that club to move the player. You’ve got a mandate to bring a player to England, and there’ll be other agents with mandates to bring those players to different countries.
“Then you’ll have a mandate from the selling club to move the player because the club want to realise some asset value and move him on.
“The player will then have his own representative, and sometimes that’ll be multiple people as well.”
While that doesn’t nail down the specifics of our interest in Diakité, Jez was happy to delve deeper into that particular transfer link.
“In this case, we did have an interest in the player. We had him flagged up to us by a guy who had a mandate to bring him to England, and there were some really good discussions around that. We would speak of that person with the highest integrity. He was genuine in believing this could be a really good fit for us.
“We also had a good dialogue through him with the selling club, to the point where we were definitely able to do a deal with the club at a level we thought was right and fair.
“The player had gone to the World Cup. We’d had discussions through the intermediaries with his own representatives to figure out whether he could come within our wage bracket, and we felt he could. Everything was looking like the stars were aligning.
“As much as it sounded a little bit mad that we could sign someone who had gone to the World Cup and played international football, he fitted our profile, was available, we could agree a transfer fee and he would fit within our wage structure.”
Diakité didn’t lead the Ivory Coast to World Cup glory, so it wasn’t his performances in the US, Canada and Mexico which scuppered the deal. However, things did change once the tournament ended.
“He then came back from the World Cup,” added Jez. “I was actually due to meet him in France, but he changed his agent. The agent we were negotiating with no longer had the representative contract with the player. Looking at the other players the agency he joined moved in the summer, we got the initial feeling that maybe they weren’t looking at Lincoln City in quite the same way as his previous representatives.
“It went from almost not being able to believe Lincoln City were going to sign this player, to suddenly there being talk of teams in the Bundesliga and wages of more than £1 million a year. Once that type of talk happens, we know we’re out of the race.”
It was reported that Diakité had turned down the Championship, reports that fit a narrative but perhaps don’t tell the full story. From there, he was linked with the top flight in Germany, amongst others, but as the window began to close, he was still in the Reims reserves and still looking for a move.
Last week, it emerged that Bolton were interested, going against the previous ‘turning down England’ narrative. That didn’t emerge either, and he now finds himself in Austria.
“Ultimately, what probably happened in the last three, four or five days was that all of those possibilities never came to fruition,” added Jez. “Maybe his representatives were then back in touch with all the middlemen who had mandates to take him to different countries. That’s why you’ll have seen him linked with other clubs in the Championship.
“For us, it was a small, finite moment in time when we could have done the deal. We couldn’t, the parameters changed and we moved on. The player ended up going to a different country on deadline day. It was an interesting experience and one we, at one point, thought we could get over the line.
“But as soon as the financial parameters changed, we were out.”
We did get some big deals over the line, Andrei Coubis and Mikkel Ladefoged being the eye-catching ones, but this window certainly feels like there was more happening under the surface which never came up for air.
In our exclusive interview with Jez, airing this evening, you’ll also hear me asking about Luke Graham, Barney Stewart, Tyrese Shade and discussing a host of other topics. Should be live at 8 pm on YouTube and your normal podcast channels.
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