Ethan Erhahon

I DON’T CARE!!!! I know I go on and on about Ethan Erhahon, and I’m absolutely cool with that, I really am.

It’s like this – the human body can live without feet and hands, eyes and ears, and even some organs, but it cannot live without a heart. A football team is the same. you’d be hard-pushed to name me a single successful team that didn’t have a player of Ethan’s type – a midfielder who can be all things on the field. Never before was this as obvious at Lincoln as in the 2020/21 season. When Liam Bridcutt played that role, we won games of football. When he was injured, we were visibly weaker. That’s the example I keep giving but imagine Man Utd without Roy Keane, Arsenal without Patrick Viera, Chelsea without Claude Makelele, and the Netherlands without Edgar Davids. The list goes on and on and on.

Not only do we now have that player, but he’s ours. It’s not like when we had Joe Morrell, and he left, or when we warmed to Matty Virtue knowing he’d go. We’ve got a 21-year-old football who, on the evidence I’ve seen so far, plays like he’s 28. He’s got the energy and legs of a young player but the awareness and intelligence of someone with hundreds of matches. He’s tough and uncompromising but not easy to rile – look how he shrugged off Barton’s antics.

I’m not prone to hyperbole, you should know that, but in terms of permanent signings, I think he is the most important we’ve made since Jorge Grant (at least), and perhaps with the potential to be the biggest we’ve made of the Jez George era. Ethan will either stay here for a couple of years and see us fighting in the top half of the table, or he’ll leave and play a big part in plugging that £2m gap we have. Whichever way you look at it, his presence in the squad is massive.