Some surprising news has come out of the club this afternoon, as it was announced that winger Hakeeb Adelakun has left Lincoln City to join League Two side Gillingham on a season long loan.
This has come as a bit of a surprise to me initially. He was very impressive against Exeter and looked more like the player we hoped for this time last year. However, on the face of it we have signed Jordon Garrick, meaning we now have five wide players in Scully, Vernam, House and Maguire, and that is with more incomings expected and the likes of Kendall, Draper and Mandriou too. We are starting to look like we have good numbers in attack now, so one on top of Chris Maguire was going to have to depart. If Haks isn’t in the managers plans and he wants regular game time then a move to Gillingham to secure himself some sort of permanent move makes so much sense for him. He will want to play forty games a season to get his career back on track and that is completely understandable.
Against Exeter, he looked to have so much confidence to take on his man and show his excellent range of passing. That confidence will be good for him to take into his loan move and under the new management of Mark Kennedy we could actually see a player return from loan and play next season unlike the previous loanees under Michael Appleton.
It appears the move has been on the cards for quite a while with the Gillingham manager saying, “Hakeeb is a player I have chased all summer, we had to be patient due to him starting the first two league games at Lincoln.”
I wish Haks all the luck at Gillingham, and I hope he can get his career back on a steady track.