The biggest news of the week came on Wednesday with Tyler Walker penning a two-year permanent contract with the club over three years after his loan spell with the club that saw him score 14 goals in 29 games, and following City’s win over Boston United yesterday, Mark Kennedy spoke a bit more about the signing.
The 26-year-old hit sixteen goals during a prolific loan spell with the Imps in the 2019/20 season, capturing the hearts of many City fans, with his return being rumoured nearly every single transfer window since he was recalled by Nottingham Forest back in 2020. He previously had a spell with Mansfield Town where he was also prolific. His time after Lincoln saw him move to Coventry City, where he hit 12 goals in 70 games.
Mark made it clear he was pleased with the signing when it was announced, but he backed up his point yesterday and also gave credit to Tyler for picking the Imps over other ‘really good options’ that he had on the table.
“He’s an exceptional talent and a fan favourite. We’ve worked really hard to get him and we have to give Tyler credit because he had really good options, so it says a lot about him that he wants to come back to Lincoln.”
Mark played down the expectations on Tyler’s gametime following his arrival at the club. He wasn’t involved in the Boston friendly as many expected, and Mark reiterated that we need to be patient with the player, considering he is a few weeks behind the rest of the team and will need easing into the team, potentially limiting his minutes going into the first few games of the league campaign.
“We have to be really patient with him, he’s played very little football from January onwards and he’s basically three weeks behind everyone else. We’ll have to be very patient, very careful and we’ll have to build up his minutes very slowly. People have to understand that, but we are really excited because he’s a top talent and top addition to the squad.
“I can tell you now, I know the minutes he’ll play in the next four and five games. Unfortunately for us, him and the fans, there’ll be a stage where he won’t be available for 90 minutes in the first stages of the season. It’s going to take a little bit of time, but the idea behind that is that he’s available to play 35/40 games and hopefully get 20 goals as well!”
We are all very excited about Tyler and it’s clear that Mark is too, but he makes a very good point about the player’s fitness and how much work he’ll have to put in to get up to the level of the rest of the squad.