Lincoln City announced the signing of Bromley FC defender Deji Elerewe yesterday morning, which begged the question. What happens with Lewis Montsma?
The defender hasn’t made a league appearance this season after recently returning from injury.
Although the dutchman has featured on the bench for the sides last four games, he still hasn’t played a league minute.
On top of that, he has only started three times this in all competitions; two of which came in the Vertu Trophy, with third coming against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup third round.
But now with the believed six-figure signing of Elerewe, surely Montsma’s chances of game time decrease even further.
The Imps are believed to have paid a release clause for the 22-year-old who made a combined 64 appearances across five years with the Ravens.
Before that, the Englishman came through the Charlton Athletic academy where he made a further 16 first team appearances along with 14 while on loan at Wealdstone FC.
He has now signed a contract until 2029 with the Imps that also contains an option for the club to extend it by a further a year.
“Having monitored Deji for some time, signing him on a permanent transfer in this window was a market opportunity that we couldn’t afford to miss,” said Imps Director of Football Jez George.
“Deji has outstanding physical attributes, an outstanding mentality and demonstrates all the behaviours that we value.
“He is super aggressive in his defending, aerially dominant and defends his box with real desire. We are really excited that we’ve convinced him that we are the right club for the next steps in his career as Deji has huge potential and a really high ceiling.”
While that statement doesn’t suggest an expectation for Elerewe to come straight into the side, he is still very capable of getting minutes this season.
That therefore, puts Montsma even further on the back foot and with the defender already linked with moves to Shrewsbury Town this month is it time for him to move on?
The dutchman has spent five years with the Imps having joined from Dutch side FC Doordrecht and has gone on to make 108 appearances for the side.
That combined with Adam Jackson nearing a return, the Imps could have afforded to lose Montsma even before their latest addition.
The most obvious reason of the addition flexibility, it gives Michael Skubala greater freedom to change to a back five even with players unavailable.
Credit: Graham Burrell
Tom Hamer now has more capability to act as backup right back without having to unsettle the positioning of Bradley by bringing Ryley Towler into the side.
On top of that, we could also see the new signing double up as central midfielder operating in the Connor McGrandles role picking up the ball in between the two centre backs.
Perhaps Montsma’s biggest concern maybe the expiry of his contract in 18 months’ time meaning the side may want to cash in while they can.
While that isn’t something massively urgent for the Imps right now, they would be forced to sell in the summer if they wanted to preserve value.
By which point the 27-year-old may not have played any football for ten months.