November is a useful time to take stock of summer signings. The early excitement has settled, January is starting to loom, and most of us have a better idea of whether the new arrivals can live up to the billing.
It is easy to get carried away when someone signs. A promising pedigree, an encouraging highlights reel and a few glowing reports from opposition supporters can have us convinced we have found the missing piece of the jigsaw. Then the football starts, and sometimes the player we imagined bears little resemblance to the one we actually get.
One thing we often see happen is a player comes in full of promise, but just doesn’t make the grade. The idea of players who fall into the “Promised Much/Delivered Little” category fascinates me. It remains a subjective business, because the expectations we attach to a signing are not always fair, and a disappointing spell does not necessarily mean someone was a bad footballer.
Injuries can intervene, a change of manager can alter everything, and sometimes a player simply never finds his place. With that in mind, these are five players from my time supporting Lincoln City who arrived with plenty of promise but ultimately left me feeling we should have seen more.
Jamie Robson
Jamie Robson arrived with the sort of background that makes it easy to get excited about a signing. He was only 23 when we brought him in from Dundee United in August 2021, but already had 174 appearances for them behind him. Just weeks earlier, he had scored the winner against Rangers, ending their 40-match unbeaten league run, so there was plenty to suggest we were getting a player ready to make an impact.
A young left-back with that experience looked like someone who could become a fixture at Sincil Bank. Instead, his time here lasted less than 18 months, with a move to Forest Green Rovers following in January 2023. He had opportunities to establish himself, but the signing never developed into the long-term success his arrival had promised.
Robson later moved to Oldham Athletic in August 2025, having spent two and a half years at Forest Green. His Lincoln spell was certainly more substantial than some on this list, but this is about the gap between expectation and delivery. Given his age, experience and the promise of his arrival, I expected him to leave a much bigger impression.
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