Lincoln City have completed the signing of James Collins as Derby County continue to reshape their squad in January.
Collins has joined the League One side on a permanent deal having found first-team minutes hard to come by in the Championship this season with the Rams sitting one point above the relegation zone.
The 34-year-old did not feature off the bench in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at home to Watford with Derby head coach Paul Warne preferring to use academy graduate Dajaune Brown as a second-half substitute.
Collins will now join a Lincoln side that will hope his excellent record in League One can propel them back towards the play-off positions with Martin Skubala’s side currently six points off the top six.
Collins scored 14 goals for Derby last season on their way to promotion to the Championship which saw him rewarded with another year’s contract at the end of the campaign.
But the addition of Jerry Yates in the summer pushed him further down the pecking order which, in turn, has impacted his number of starts and the arrival of Lars-Jorgen Salvesen from Viking FK last week has only added greater competition for places across the forward line.
While Collins has made 20 appearances this season, they have largely come from the substitutes’ bench, and Derby’s decision to grant Collins a move comes as they look to shift players out to bring them in.
That process started with Sonny Bradley joining promotion-chasing Wycombe on loan until the end of the season, while Tawanda Chirewa also saw his loan move cancelled early and he subsequently returned to Wolves.
There could well be further exits before the window closes with Tom Barkhuizen and Joe Ward also believed to be attracting interest from League One. In terms of incomings, Derby are still eager to add a winger and a creative midfield player to the squad before the deadline at the beginning of February.
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