1 – Jack Moylan
As painful as his departure still feels, I find it impossible to put anybody above Jack Moylan because his signing delivered almost everything we could ask for.
Fifteen league goals in his final Shelbourne season made Moylan the League of Ireland Premier Division’s joint leading scorer before he arrived at Lincoln in January 2024. We had agreed the move the previous September, with Shelbourne receiving development compensation when his contract expired. His Lincoln spell brought a League One title and selection in the division’s Team of the Season, followed by a Republic of Ireland debut hat-trick, before Cardiff City paid a club-record fee received by the Imps to sign him on a four-year deal in August 2026.
We identified a player in Irish football, brought him in for £50,000, helped him through an injury-disrupted period and saw him become a major figure in a season that changed the club’s history, before selling him for an initial £3 million with the potential for more. The financial return alone is extraordinary, giving us scope to recruit players who would previously have been beyond our reach, but Jack’s place here is about much more than money. He supplied the moments of invention that could transform a game, the strike from distance or the immediate response to conceding that gave us something beyond pressure, territory and deliveries into the box.
He also gave us that headline moment on the way into the Championship, even though promotion had already been secured, and those memories don’t disappear because he now plays for a rival. A modest initial outlay, resilience through adversity, a huge contribution to a historic team and a transfer that transformed what we could spend afterwards make this, for me, the standout piece of business in Lincoln City’s history.
Hard to argue with the list … totally agree with comments about Harry Anderson !