Championship Millwall will have to splash out almost treble their initial £1.5 million bid to have any chance of landing Lewis Ferguson.
That lowball offer is way below the valuation for a Scotland international with two years left on his Pittodrie contract.
What is a fair price for an international who scored 16 goals last season?
Certainly not £1.5m.
Would Aberdeen find a replacement of similar calibre for an international who scored 16 goals last season for £1.5m?
Not a chance – so any club interested in landing Ferguson must surely come in with an offer of £4m to even get the Dons to open up negotiations. And then expect to be negotiated up further.
Ferguson has made 180 appearances (179 starts) for the Dons and has been capped four times by his country.
He has scored 37 goals and also has 17 starts in European competition.
Serie A Cagliari sent two representatives to watch Ferguson in action in March and returned with glowing reports on the midfielder.
Aberdeen were told to brace for a summer bid, expected to be £3.5, from the Italian outfit.
However, Cagliari were relegated at the end of the season and a move to the second tier will clearly not have the same appeal.
Yet there remains serious interest in Ferguson from other Italian top-flight clubs.
Watford, who had a bid of £2m rejected for Ferguson last May, are also understood to be keen on revisiting a move for the 22-year-old.
With two years left on his contract, this window appears to be the optimum time for the Dons to cash in on Ferguson.
After this summer, there will only be another three windows where the Reds can get a transfer fee for the midfielder.
With each successive window, as his contract runs down, Ferguson’s sell-on value will also decrease.
However, Aberdeen are effectively in a win-win situation regarding Ferguson.
They do not have to sell one of their prized assets, particularly after pocketing a club record fee from Liverpool for Calvin Ramsay.
If Ferguson exits this summer, it will only be for Aberdeen’s valuation.
Aberdeen underlined in the negotiations with Liverpool over teen right-back Ramsay they are willing to hold out for the right price.
Liverpool’s initial bid was worth up to £6m, with £4m upfront and a potential £2m in add-ons.
The Reds held on for a deal up to £8m, with £4.5m upfront and a potential £3.5m in add-ons if certain milestones are met.
Aberdeen are clearly ready to hold firm until the price is right for any approach for a player.
If Ferguson stays, though, boss Goodwin will retain a key component of his team.
Ferguson has been pivotal to the Aberdeen first team for years, and remains so.
The midfielder suffered the disappointment of having a £2m approach from then-Premier League Watford knocked back by the Dons in May last year.
He subsequently slapped in a transfer request, which was also rejected.
To the midfielder’s credit, he remained focused throughout the 2021-22 campaign after that set-back.
If he does secure a move to England or Italy this summer, he deserves it.
Should Ferguson stay beyond the summer, it will be a major boost for Goodwin’s plans.
Ferguson is highly influential, possesses instinctive game intelligence, scores goals and also pitches in with assists.
He is robust, hard tackling, rarely injured and leads by example.
Ferguson can perform in a defensive midfield role breaking up attacks. The Scotland cap can also play in a more advanced role as a creator.
Millwall boss Gary Rowett has reportedly isolated Ferguson as one of his main summer signing targets.
The Den outfit’s record fee paid is £1.2 m to Sheffield United for Ryan Leonard four years ago.
They will have to smash that record to have any chance of luring Ferguson from Pittodrie.
Richardson an attacking wing-back
New signing Jayden Richardson has big boots to fill as the replacement for multi-million teen Calvin Ramsay.
Right-back Ramsay has completed a dream move to Premier League giants Liverpool that could be worth up to £8 million.
Such is the level of Ramsay’s signing, the teen has replaced £85m signing Darwen Nunez as the head image of Liverpool’s twitter page.
New home📍 @LFC pic.twitter.com/tpdGFgXA3l
— CALVIN RAMSAY (@CalvinRamsay) June 20, 2022
Ramsay posted a tweet saying ‘New Home’ on signing for Liverpool and received 87,000 likes. That is a third of the population of Aberdeen!
Dons boss Jim Goodwin wasted no time in securing a replacement in former Nottingham Forest defender Richardson.
The right-back was secured on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee.
Early indications are Richardson is a lightning fast attacking wing-back who could create scoring chances.
Ramsay pitched in with nine assists and a goal last season.
The hope is Richardson will bring that same attacking threat – coupled with a defensive robustness.
A product of the Nottingham Forest youth academy, the defender received rave reviews for his loan spell at Notts County last season.
Richardson also had a successful loan period at Exeter previously.
With Nottingham Forest earning promotion to the English top-flight, any chance of breaking into the first team faded further away. So Richardson has opted to go to the Scottish top flight.
Aberdeen are investing in youth in the hope he will become a first team regular and asset.
It worked when signing Lewis Ferguson from Hamilton when he had made just 14 appearances.
And it could pay off again with the capture of Richardson.
Same result in Usyk-Joshua rematch
I anticipate the same outcome in Anthony Joshua’s rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
It has been confirmed the two will go again in Saudi Arabia on August 20.
Ukrainian Usyk comprehensively defeated Joshua in London last September to win the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles.
Undefeated Usyk, a former cruiserweight champion, has been helping Ukraine’s war effort against Russia.
However, he was given permission to leave the country in March to train for the rematch.
Southpaw Usyk was too quick and too ring smart for Joshua in the first fight. I back Usyk to win the rematch.
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