The early promotion of cathedral city team Lincoln to the Championship has rightly attracted attention and praise. For example, the latest edition of Four Four Two has a feature on the club which is well worth reading. Lincoln is a classic ‘stand alone’ club. It is clearly the pre-eminent club in Lincolnshire (Grimsby play in Cleethorpes and former EFL club Boston play in the National League, as do Scunthorpe). Lincolnshire is probably the leading arable farming county in England with many large scale and prosperous enterprises – I gave a talk to some of the leading producers many years ago, before Sir James Dyson got involved with his innovative agricultural enterprises. For the first time in 65 years, Lincoln City will play in the second tier of English football next season — a success achieved despite starting their 2025-26 campaign with the seventh-lowest budget among the 24 clubs in League One. American investment Lincoln are one of many English clubs t...