By Nathan Jackson
May 1 2010

If you look in 10 years at Lincoln players that never filled the potential that their talents could have taken them to, Stefan Oakes would be at the very top of the list. The midfielder was one of Peter Jackson's "Magnificant Seven" signings and although his talent was unquestionable, there weren't too many that were disappointed when he left.

Chris Sutton quickly identified that Stefan Oakes was one of the most naturally talented players in League Two. That came in October, skip forward six months to March and and whilst he still believed that Oakes was the most naturally talents in the division, he stated that "Ability isn't everything."

Oakes never really settled in at City. He signed from Wycombe, whom themselves had signed him from Notts County and fans of both clubs said that he often looked like he didn't care and that he spent an abnormal amount of time out injured. I also worked with one of his former girlfriends when I was in Nottingham and she said he could be injured by a bit of cotton. These trends continued with the Imps and the phrase "Stefan Oakes picked up an injury" became a feature of every match report covering games that he played in.

The thing was that early on in this season it did actually appeared that he wanted to prove everyone wrong and he was creating everything, City didn't perform when he didn't play, and he had another spell of decent performances under Sutton, but then the old Stefan returned.

It's such a shame that no-one seemed capable of getting the best out of Oakes, you just can't help those that don't want to be helped.

The Players of 2009/10 : Stefan Oakes

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 01/05/2010 22:39

theimps.ka
01/05/2010 22:39

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