Recalled Imps Striker Set For Championship Switch – Why I’m Not Fussed

Justin Obikwu is poised to join Championship side QPR, according to Pete O’Rourke, which is the reason behind his sudden recall by Coventry.

I’ll be honest, I’m surprised. I’ve seen it suggested he could be moving to Loftus Road for a huge fee, which is a huge amount for a player I don’t think was ready to start regular matches for us, but then we’re merely fans and pundits, not those in the game. It would be crazy if he did move for that, given the fact he’s matured here.

It’s vindication for our recruitment team (again) that a player we have identified and trusted is being looked upon as a possible second-tier player, which is a good thing, but if I’m honest, aside from leaving us short today, I think this is a good thing anyway.

Queens Park Rangers have agreed a deal to sign Coventry City forward Justin Obikwu. Obikwu has been recalled from his loan at Lincoln to make the move to QPR. #SkyBlues #PUSB #QPR #WeAreImps pic.twitter.com/EnHiHgKV1Q

— Pete O’Rourke (@SportsPeteO) January 17, 2026

I’m a layman. I watch games through the eyes of a fan, and I try to see beyond just the obvious. That’s what the media have to do I think, so I look beyond a miss. I look beyond a Wikipedia stat or goals ratio. It’s why I have always backed Freddie Draper, why I championed Jovon Makama because I felt I saw more than the (more than) occasional miss from Norwich’s best player, or why Freddie struggling for fitness last season didn’t concern me. As much as I looked at Justin Obikwu, I really didn’t see it.

I likened him to Ollie Palmer, a player who was unconventional to a point where he was unpredictable, and for the record, a player I didn’t like. I didn;t dislike Justin, he seemed a decent lad and he wasn’t awful for us, but like a World War II bomb found in a play park in 2026, you didn’t quite know what would happen. In a day where football is planned and analysed, and every margin for success is measured and taken, I’m not sure this Lincoln City can have that type of player. Obikwu has a profile we liked, sure, he worked hard and in patches, he looked unplayable, but at other times, I felt he lacked something.

Huddersfield at home was a classic example. When we made the changes late on, and Justin came on, I felt our attack lacked a little cohesion. I wondered if the club saw his raw attributes, saw the potential, and wanted to work with that, especially given he might have left Coventry in the summer for nothing. It’s a blow losing him now, it left us short today and it’s a player with potential departing, but I have to say having now got a good point today, I think it’s something positive.

Now, we have to go out and get a striker. We weren’t going to, and if Obikwu had been recalled, we might have kept Okoronkwo, another who didn’t impress me on the field. Our hand has been forced, and one way or another, we have to bring in a new face. That settles the crowd. That silences those who might complain if Obikwu had stayed and we didn’t bring someone in. It also gives us a chance to find a profile we need right now, not the one we needed when Justin came in. Double bubble in terms of advantages.

The profile I’m talking about is a like-for-like for Freddie Draper. Today, Freddie was a behemoth, battering defenders, getting battered himself and still shrugging it off. He was cynical at times, especially at the end, with his foul on their keeper, but not in a naive way. He looked experienced, he looked to be using his attributes in the right way, and on 75 minutes, maybe what we needed was that, but fresher. Maybe, those last knockings where I felt we were better, we might have snatched it had we got Freddie Draper fresh at kick off, not the one that ran himself into the ground.

That, for me, is what we should be looking for. I think whoever we sign, many people will feel underwhelmed, because they’ll click the Wikipedia page and see something like five goals on loan in League Two, rather than a Paul Mullin. They might find a player with ten appearances for a Championship side as the sum of his recent senior experience, rather than a Joe Taylor figure. That’s because we won’t splash the cash on a name, we’ll move smartly on the profile. Shoot me down for this, but we don’t need a 20-goal-a-season striker right now; we need more of what we have, so the approach that has put us second can be kept up when the players that have put us second get tired.

Here’s my prediction, and I may be way off, but I can see us fishing a player from the Championship on loan who might be getting older (27+) and not getting matches (yes, I will be doing an article to that effect on Monday with a list). He might be more physical than a poacher, but he’ll bring experience, rather than promise. Or, we’ll get in a Championship Draper, a young player with a big physical profile, but not as much first-team experience. We won’t be spending £600,000 on Aaron Drinan; we’ll be looking for functional, not a statement signing.

I think the next 20 games demand something different, or rather, they demand the same as what we already have for depth. The phrase ‘offers something different from the bench’ doesn’t carry as much weight when what you’re offered by those on the pitch does the job.

That’s my opinion anyway. Justin Obikwu will move to QPR, and it might be for seven figures, but my honest assessment is that he was a fringe striker here, and if we act smartly (which, let’s be honest, we’ve done pretty much all the time over the last two or three years) then we could be better off come the start of February than we had be if he’d stayed, or if he’d gone on January 1st and we’d persevered with Okoronkwo.