Lincoln City backed to sign "exciting" Nottingham Forest player | OneFootball

The 19-year-old has spent the second half of this season on loan with the Imps, with his deal coming to an end soon.

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...

Lincoln City are looking to end the 2024/25 League One season strongly, with it all but confirmed that they will be playing their football in the third tier again in the next campaign.

With just five games to go, the Imps' gap to the top six now sits at 14 points, and they would need a miracle to find themselves in the play-offs at this point in time.

Inconsistency had denied Michael Skubala's side a chance at promotion to the Championship, and their early-season form dropped off over the winter, and they have been unable to recover it ever since.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of positives still to take from this campaign for Lincoln, and while some improvements to the squad are needed, a deal to secure the services of one particular loanee may just be struck once again in the summer.

Lincoln urged to bring Joe Gardner back next season

The Imps have been spectacular from set pieces this season, and it has been a key strength for them as they battled to keep pace with the top six, but they still need talent from open play.

Nottingham Forest's Joe Gardner has been able to provide that from the bench on occasion since joining in the January transfer window on loan until the end of the campaign, with the forward featuring semi-regularly as a substitute.

He had made seven appearances in League One in 2024/25, scoring once but he will want to prove himself even more after the summer.

Football League World has asked their Lincoln Fan Pundit, Gary Hutchinson, if he would like to see Gardner return to the Sincil Bank Stadium in the transfer window.

He told FLW: "I'd be delighted if we tied up a loan deal for Joe Gardner next season.

"I think it's, it's always tough coming in, in January as a loan player. People go on about Morgan Rogers and Brennan Johnson coming in, but Johnson had a far bigger impact than Rogers, who came in and took a couple of games to settle. So, I think it's always quite tough.

"I've liked the look of Gardner. He's composed, he looks exciting, he wants to run at players, he wants to get on the ball, and he wants to make things happen. If we are going to be playing our 3-5-2 next season maybe we wouldn't see it as much because he'd have be having to play at wing-back and I don't really think that's his position.

"But in the new 4-2-3-1 that we've been playing over the course of the last seven or eight games, he fits perfectly as one of those two wide attackers."

Gary continued: "That change in formation has been massive for us because it's freed up Reeco Hackett-Fairchild a little bit from his defensive duties, and it’s given Jovon Makama a fresh impetus out on one flank as well.

"There are all sorts of benefits to us going to a 4-2-3-1 and Gardner returning and kind of having that je ne sais quoi, that little bit of something that just lights up the crowd and that will get people off their seats – just a dip of the shoulder and beat a player, he can do that.

"I think that that will be huge, especially when you're a team like Lincoln. You have to have something to keep the fans coming back because you'll lose games and win games.

"You're not a Birmingham, you're not a Charlton and you're not a Bolton. You're not expected to be in the top three, four or five, so you've got to have something else that keeps the fans involved and a player like Gardner who can cause excitement is just that."

Nottingham Forest will want Gardner to have more minutes next season

With Lincoln's league status secured, Skubala now has the opportunity to hand Gardner more minutes and show off his talents ahead of this summer.

Forest, his parent club, will want to see the forward given more chances to prove himself, and if the Imps do not do that from now until the end of the season, it may be difficult to secure another deal in the transfer window.

Sending a player out on loan requires a lot of trust from the side who are allowing that player to leave, and Gardner will only progress if he has time with the ball at his feet in a match situation - something that is not happening regularly enough currently.