Italian top flight side Cagliari will have to cough up far more than £3.5m to land Aberdeen’s Lewis Ferguson in the summer.
Serie A Cagliari sent two representatives to Pittodrie on Saturday to watch Ferguson in the 3-1 defeat of Hibs.
Ferguson’s agent Bill McMurdo then held talks with Cagliari’s representatives in Edinburgh later that day.
McMurdo insists Cagliari, who have been monitoring Ferguson for 18 months, were ‘very impressed’ with the midfielder’s performance against Hibs.
McMurdo has primed the Dons to expect a £3.5m bid from the Italians.
However the Sardinian club should be braced to dig far deeper if they have any aspirations of signing the Dons’ midfielder.
Aberdeen knocked back a £4.8m offer from Italians Bologna for teenage right-back Calvin Ramsay during the January transfer window.
Surely that should send alarm bells ringing in Cagliari’s Unipol Domus stadium.
Ramsay is still a relative rookie, albeit an exciting one, and the Dons value him far more than Cagliari’s expected opening bid for Ferguson.
Midfielder Ferguson, however, has been absolutely fundamental to the Aberdeen starting XI for four seasons.
A bid of £3.5m for Ferguson would be way below his value.
Aberdeen could potentially use the rejected offer for Ramsay as leeway to ramp up any bids for Ferguson.
With the Ramsay interest, the Reds have already shown they are willing to play hard ball in the transfer market.
Bologna would have been investing in potential with Ramsay, in his first full season with the Dons.
However any club bidding for Ferguson will be moving for an established pro that has consistently excelled for four seasons.
Ferguson has 161 starts for the Dons, 17 of those in Europe.
He has been capped twice for Scotland and is on the brink of securing a first international start, potentially against Poland tomorrow.
Ferguson is one of the top players in the Premiership and his price tag must reflect that.
In May last year Aberdeen knocked back a bid of under £2m from Watford for Ferguson, branding it ‘insulting’.
A bid of £3.5m from Cagliari would be equally insulting.
Fast forward 10 months from that Watford approach and Ferguson has broken into the Scotland international squad and netted 14 goals this season.
Ferguson’s reputation and value have risen significantly since Watford’s approach.
This summer Ferguson will have two years left on his contract.
Aberdeen are in control of this situation, not Ferguson’s agent nor Cagliari.
Cagliari had considered making a potential bid to take Ferguson in on loan in January for a six month period.
🧊 As cool as you like from @lewisferguson7.
👊🏽 The passion from @connorbarron8_.
COYR! #StandFree pic.twitter.com/5zcxcJgjtn
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) March 20, 2022
On completion of that loan, the intention was to sign him on a permanent contract in the summer for a fee – but only if they avoided relegation.
That loan proposal was never going to fly with the Dons.
There is zero benefit in loaning your star player to a club for six months in the hope a fee will only arrive if they stay up?
Cagliari retaining top flight status will be key to any summer bid. McMurdo admitted that if they are relegated it would be hard to advise Ferguson to go to Cagliari in Serie B.
They are currently three points ahead of the relegation zone, with eight games remaining.
Cagliari have identified Ferguson as a replacement for Nahitan Nandez who is being tracked by Juventus, Inter Milan and Napoli.
Uruguay international Nandez is expected to exit Cagliari in the summer.
In the aftermath of the rejected bid from Watford last season Ferguson slapped in a transfer request – which was knocked back.
Despite that, he has remained a consummate professional.
Ferguson has been one of the Dons’ top performers in an underwhelming season for the club.
However there has to come a point where a player must move on to the next level and a club has to cash in.
Aberdeen rightly rejected the move to the Premier League with Watford because it was not enough money for a player so important to the team.
This summer could be the window Ferguson moves on, whether to Serie A or the English Premier League.
However it will have to be for a lot more than £3.5m to land a player that is absolutely fundamental to Aberdeen.
Hopes for a Hampden sell-out
Hopefully Hampden will be sold out for tomorrow’s fundraising friendly between Scotland and Poland.
It will be difficult to focus on football tomorrow night knowing the Scots should be playing Ukraine in the World Cup play-off semi-final.
Football seems inconsequential when so many innocents are dying daily in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s invasion.
In truth everything feels inconsequential in light of the horrors in Ukraine.
The SFA have arranged to donate £10 from each match ticket sold to UNICEF’s humanitarian response.
It will help provide food, medicine and clean water for those left in Ukraine and those forced to flee the war torn country.
As of Monday 33,000 tickets had been sold which includes more than 4,500 Polish supporters who bought tickets over the weekend.
In buying a ticket supporters will not only be backing their country on the pitch they will also be showing solidarity with Ukraine.
Ideally the friendly will be a 52,000 sell out with late walk ups on Thursday night.
Scotland fans will see arguably the world’s top striker of the last few seasons, Robert Lewandowski, in action tomorrow.
Bayern Munich striker Lewandowski will captain Poland.
Lewandowski has now scored a remarkable 50 goals in 43 games for club and country this season.
However despite the lure of Lewandowski, we would all prefer to be watching the Scots face Ukraine.
Hopefully that game can go ahead in June. However, the only hope is that this war on Ukraine will end.
Welcome return of Marley Watkins
The return of Marley Watkins from long term injury could be the key to Aberdeen securing top six football – and potentially European qualification.
Attacker Watkins returned to action when coming off the bench in the 3-1 defeat of Hibs at the weekend.
It was his first game time since the 2-1 defeat of Dundee on Boxing Day.
Coincidentally that was the last time the Reds had won in the league prior to overcoming Hibs.
Watkins made an impact off the bench and brought a sharpness and quickness of thought to the attack.
That will be pivotal in the remaining two games against Dundee and Ross County before the Premiership split.