Lincoln City urged to avoid repeat of "ineffective" 2023 signing ahead of February 3 deadline | OneFootball

We spoke to our Lincoln City pundit about a January mistake he doesn't want to see repeated.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Football League World's Lincoln City fan pundit has admitted that he would like to see the club avoid signing an unproven striker on loan before the February 3 transfer deadline, having been haunted by a previous deal for Luke Plange.

The Imps have endured a challenging month, suffering three defeats and a draw, which has seen them slip out of the play-off picture.

During this period, they have failed to find the back of the net, with struggling defences such as Shrewsbury Town and Bolton Wanderers managing to keep them at bay, although they did get a win this past weekend against Northampton.

To make matters even worse, the last 2 weeks has seen them knocked out of their two remaining cup competitions with defeats to the Trotters and Birmingham City seeing them depart the EFL Trophy and FA Cup respectively.

Most would see this as an opportunity to bring in some much-needed reinforcements, but Michael Skubala has made just one new addition so far, with 34-year-old Sam Clucas re-joining from Oldham Athletic, having spent time at his home-town club as a youngster.

However, the next couple of weeks could see an increase in transfer activity, with the Imps' head coach openly acknowledging the pressing need for new signings.

Lincoln City urged to avoid unproven loan striker deal this month

With January business in mind, Football League World spoke to their resident Imps pundit, Gary Hutchinson, who admitted that while he doesn't expect Lincoln to do this, they must avoid a repeat of a 2023 disaster signing.

He said: "We have to avoid bringing in a young loan player who is going to be ineffective, and the obvious one is Luke Plange.

"A couple of years ago, we needed to add to our strikeforce, we needed vibrancy up top and someone to replace Dan Nlundulu, who returned to Southampton.

"We went for Luke Plange, and there were rumours that we were linked with Sinclair Armstrong on loan and Mason Burstow, but Plange was our top pick - and he was awful.

"I don't think he had a shot on target the whole time he was with us, he looked ineffective and wasn't up to League One standard. This has since been proven with subsequent loans. I think the only goal he scored for Carlisle was against us, which was always going to happen.

"So, I think when we are bringing in someone up top, which is almost certainly going to happen, by the way, because Michael Skubala has said this, we need to avoid those young players who are on their first loan or even potentially their second loan.

"Joe Taylor obviously did very well for us when he came in, so it does prove that you can get those loan players in.

"We have that youth, what we need now is experience. What we need is someone that can help take the young players on who is still around the club."

Lincoln City need an experienced striker to help their play-off push

Looking at their current squad, Lincoln are just missing that bit of nous up top, with no attacker finding the back of the net more than five times this season.

Currently, they have squandered 32 of their 47 big chances created, a key factor in their recent struggles, with the team managing to score just 29 league goals all season. Looking at the teams around the play-off picture, they have all netted far more than that.

If Skubala can find a consistent striker, they can begin to work themselves back towards that coveted top six. Last year, we saw the impact of January signing Taylor, who netted 10 goals in 19 matches as the Imps almost grasped a play-off spot from nowhere.

A year on, they find themselves in a similar position, and if they can secure a signing of the same calibre, they might just surprise League One fans once again.