Aberdeen attacker Pape Gueye’s red-hot scoring form will continue when he returns from injury, believes the boss who helped resurrect his Pittodrie career.
Former Senegal under-20 international Gueye is ruled out until early next year with a quad muscle tear.
Gueye has been sidelined since suffering the injury in late September but still remains the top scorer in the Premiership with five goals.
The 25-year-old was in scintillating form and netted five goals in his last four games before the injury setback.
It was a remarkable turnaround for Gueye who made just one start for the Dons last season before moving on loan in February to Kristiansund in Norway.
Kristiansund manager Amund Skiri reunited with Gueye having previously worked with the attacker at Norwegian club Aalesunds.
He said Gueye arrived at Kristiansund with his confidence low.
Skiri knew trust and patience in Gueye, and regular football, was all that was needed.
Gueye repaid that faith to such an extent many at Kristiansund wanted to retain the attacker beyond his initial loan spell.
Skiri reckons Aberdeen have a coach in Jimmy Thelin who will allow him to express himself.
And that will create an environment for Gueye to be better than ever when he returns from injury.
Skiri said: “Pape has now shown what he can do at Aberdeen.
“I’m sure it will continue to be a good story for Pape and Aberdeen when he comes back from injury.
“Pape returned to Aberdeen after his loan and had a big impact before his injury.
“I feel really bad for Pape when he got the injury but it will be the same story of making an impact and scoring goals when he comes back.
“There is a strong relationship with Pape and his coaches at Aberdeen.
“With the coach at Aberdeen (Jimmy Thelin) and the team it is a good place for Pape to be.
“Yes, he needs time but I’m sure Pape will come back stronger than ever from his injury.
“We really love Pape and many people here said they wanted to keep him,
“I said to them to be happy for the time we had Pape and be happy for what he now achieves with Aberdeen.”
‘Finding the footballer again and the joy of life’
Aberdeen paid £500,000 to sign the attacker from Belgian club KV Kortrijk last summer.
He endured a frustrating debut season with just one start and 132 minutes of first-team action before being sent on loan.
During his loan Gueye made 15 appearances for Kristiansund, 14 starts, delivering six goals and three assists.
Skiri said: “The deal we had with Pape was to come here and have a big impact, which he did.
“And he also hopefully feels we made a big impact on him restarting his career.
“For us it was a win-win story. And it also included a win for Aberdeen.
“I’m really glad we were able to do what we talked to Aberdeen about, to restart Pape as he is a good player.
“Pape always puts so much effort into training and he did that again at Kristiansund.
“He flourished here and his physical abilities are great.
“Pape is fast, strong and also runs a lot in both attacking and defending play.
“I knew Pape’s individual qualities of pace, strength in the duels, one-v-one and of course scoring goals.
“For Pape it was about finding the footballer again and the joy of life when he was here.”
‘Pape needed trust and time’
When arriving at Pittodrie in the summer, boss Jimmy Thelin said every player would be given a clean slate in the bid to earn a place in his long-term plans.
Gueye returned from Norway in July and grabbed that opportunity.
Having previously worked with Gueye for two-years, Skiri knew the quality of the attacker – but says it just took trust in him to bring it out.
On Gueye’s lack of game-time in his debut Aberdeen season, Skiri said: “This is football.
“Pape wasn’t in his best form and in a competition like that the club and coaches need results.
“There is tough competition in the team. Pape needed trust and time.
“We talked about it here as well because in the beginning people didn’t see the potential in him.
“He stepped on the ball, he lost the ball and maybe his body language suggested he didn’t care.
“I knew something else. I know Pape and that he cared a lot and worked so hard.
“Pape could step on the ball and lose it one day.
“Then the next day if we have trust in him he will beat a couple of players and put the ball in the far corner of the goal.
“You have to accept all players have weaknesses.
“Pape has weaknesses and it shows when he is not playing well.
“But when he performs his strengths are so visible.
“So we have to as coaches take a grip on what is the strength of this player?
“What can this player with these strengths give to the team?”
Not playing ‘does something to his mood and quality of life’
Despite being sidelined for six weeks Gueye remains joint top of the Premiership scoring charts with five goals from five games.
Benjamin Mbunga-Kimpioka (St Johnstone, 11 games), Callum McGregor (Celtic, 9 games) and Nicky Clark (St Johnstone, 13 games) are also on five goals but have played more matches than Gueye.
Under Skiri at Aalesunds from 2018 to 2020, Gueye netted 25 goals in 61 matches and was regarded as one of the hottest talents in Scandinavian football.
That form earned a move to KV Kortrijk in Belgium in January 2020.
Millwall reportedly had a £1.5m bid for Gueye rejected in January 2022 by KV Kortrijk.
Skiri said: “I was Pape’s coach when he was 18 to 20-years-old at Aalesunds.
“We worked a lot on one-on-one training. There was already a strong relationship there when he came over to Kristiansund.
“At that time he wasn’t feeling well in Aberdeen.
“Pape has always been someone who needs to play football and that is so important for him.
“When he doesn’t get to play football he is not feeling good, as footballers should do.
“In Pape’s case I feel it is extra for him if he does not play.
“It does something to his mood and quality of life.
“When he came over to Kristiansund the first thing he immediately wanted to do was to go out on the pitch and play with the ball.
“We played some passes and I could see the difference that he thought this is a new start for him.
“That he could hopefully start enjoying playing football again.
“Pape needed a restart and luckily for us we had some weeks in the pre-season so we could train him and get him into game form.
“He was back to himself, confident and enjoying football.
“Pape works so hard. For me it is about confidence and trust.”
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