With the new year fast approaching, we’ve decided to explore the football issues which are close to the Red Army’s heart this festive period.
In this opening installment of a five-part series, we ask one of the burning questions followers of the Dons will want to know the answer to for 2021 – Should Aberdeen cash in on Sam Cosgrove in January and put their faith in the likes of Curtis Main?
Sam Cosgrove arrived at Pittodrie as raw as a pound of Aberdeen Angus beef. One thing is for sure, when the time does come for him to move on to pastures new he will leave the Dons with the reputation of being a proven commodity in and around the penalty area.
A player whose value has gone up and up since he arrived at Pittodrie
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has spoken often of his rough diamond, who arrived at the club with very little fanfare from Carlisle United in January 2018. The £30,000 transfer fee paid for a young man with one senior goal in League Two in England reflected that.
But within two-and-a-half years, Cosgrove has seen his value soar to the point Aberdeen accepted an offer 90 times that of what they paid Carlisle for him on deadline day two years ago. When it comes to taking a punt on a player Aberdeen have got a winning ticket in their attacker.
That Cosgrove would opt to reject a move to French club Guingamp after their £2.7 million offer had been accepted in July speaks volumes about the confidence the Dons’ main striker now has.
He has not been knocking on his manager’s office door demanding to be sold, but he has enough faith in his own ability to resist the first chance to increase his wages which comes his way. It was an admirable show of Cosgrove’s strength of character that he did not jump ship at the first opportunity to drastically increase his income came his way.
Cosgrove’s meteoric rise to prominence in Scottish football has led to admiring potential suitors in England checking on his progress. Around this time last year Stoke City and Derby County were keeping tabs on him. This year it is Premier League outfit Newcastle United who have been credited with an interest in his services.
Despite the fact 2020 can be virtually written off due to Covid-19 and a knee injury which kept Cosgrove out of action until October 20, it is not hard to fathom why scouts have been making the trip to Scotland to watch the Dons striker in action.
His form prior to the pandemic was sensational.
You can measure Cosgrove against any striker in Aberdeen’s long history and his statistics stand up to scrutiny. Last season he became only the fifth player in the club’s history and only the third since World War II to score 20 goals by Christmas.
When you can join the company of Duncan Shearer and the “King of the Beach End” Joe Harper, you are doing well.
But the 20 goals scored were more than a purple patch. Cosgrove found the net 32 times in the calendar year of 2019. No Don had done that since Harper in 1978.
He added another four to his tally in the second half of the season before the coronavirus stopped play in March, but was all set to carry on where he left off once play resumed in August, only to suffer a knee injury in his club’s final pre-season friendly against Hibernian at Pittodrie in July.
Aberdeen have already named their price for Sam Cosgrove
We can only wonder what might have been had Cosgrove not been sidelined for almost three months by injury. Had he been fit, maybe an offer would have come in and there would be no debate as the striker would already be plying his trade somewhere else.
But whether Aberdeen believe it is time to trade in their chips on one of their prized assets is a moot point at this stage.
They have already shown their hand in that respect. If a club wants to take the Dons forward off his club’s hands, then they had better get close to the fee which was accepted in the summer. Timewasters need not apply.
But as we’ve already seen meeting Aberdeen’s valuation is only one aspect of this equation. Convincing Cosgrove it is in his best interests to sign on the dotted line is another matter entirely.
Cosgrove scored a fantastic goal against Hibs on his return from injury:
Who will fill Cosgrove goal-scoring role for Dons?
The bigger question is what will life after Cosgrove look like for the Dons? That is a tougher conundrum to solve.
Bruce Anderson is on loan at Ayr United, while Ryan Edmondson’s loan from Leeds United is up next month. The same goes for Marley Watkins, whose arrival from Bristol City had been the catalyst for a more dynamic, free-flowing attack prior to his hamstring injury in the Scottish Cup semi-final loss to Celtic at Hampden.
That leaves Curtis Main who, like Cosgrove, has been hampered by injury in the first half of the campaign, although scored twice in the 2-0 Premiership win over Ross County. He is free to sign a pre-contract with another club from January 1 and the form of Cosgrove has restricted Main’s first-team opportunities since he arrived from Motherwell in the summer of 2019.
McInnes would like to keep Watkins for the second half of the campaign, given his impact prior to his injury. If Cosgrove does move on then it would be no surprise to see the Dons boss try to use some of the proceeds to extend Watkins’ stay at Pittodrie for the rest of the season, if not make it permanent.
The future of Main and Edmondson is tougher to predict. But, if January does bring a parting of the waves between Cosgrove and Aberdeen, then both parties will go their separate ways on good terms.
The Dons gave Cosgrove his chance and he took it. Aberdeen’s investment will pay a handsome dividend during a tough financial period for all clubs but Cosgrove too will be rewarded for his efforts.
It will be a win-win situation for both when the time to say goodbye does come.
