Lincoln City's exciting youngster Ellis Chapman has been linked with a move to Derby County, as reported by Lincolnshire Live.

Chapman, whose father was a YTS player at Lincoln with Darren Huckerby, has been incredibly impressive for the Imps despite only having five league outings to his name. He came on at Goodison Park in the FA Cup and didn’t look out of place.

At the beginning of the season it appeared all the 18-year-old needed was a run in the first team to get experience of men’s football, something that he looked set for.

A red card against Cambridge curtailed his progress, but he kept on working hard and forced his way back into the squad.

He was eventually loaned out to Chesterfield, for whom he made 13 appearances and grew in stature. He’s returned to Lincoln looking a far more fearsome figure than the boy who left, but his return may be short lived.

Lincoln have sold their key players before; their recent run hasn’t purely been funded by the FA Cup success of 2017 and their EFL Trophy win. They’ve had to wheel and deal, with key players such as Sean Raggett and Alex Woodyard being sold on for a profit.

There’s a blueprint within the Raggett deal which might be worth exploring if Derby come knocking.

Any Rams move for Chapman would be with the future in mind and despite his promise, he’d struggled to get into their squad at first.

When Lincoln sold Raggett to Norwich, he was immediately loaned back for six months. He played the first half of their play-off qualifying season in 2017/18, as well as helping them towards the EFL Trophy final as well.

He left in January to try to break into the Norwich first team, but the decision to loan him back was a wise one.

It’s not the first time Norwich have done it, they also loaned Tristan Abrahams back to Leyton Orient after signing him.

If the Rams are happy with the Imps set up, which the loan of Kellan Gordon this season suggests they are, perhaps a deal could be struck whereby Chapman returns to Sincil Bank for a season after a big money move.

It would be best for all parties and allow Imps fans to see ‘one of their own’ break through into the first team properly.