Sam gave us a Red start
ABERDEEN GAFFER’S BOOST
DELIGHTED Derek McInnes is praying all his Aberdeen stars take a leaf out of Sam Cosgrove’s book and opt to stay at the club.
Dons top scorer Cosgrove knocked back a £2million move to French side Guingamp last week, even though he was given permission to open talks.
Cosgrove has scored 44 goals in two seasons and McInnes is well aware of the hole that would be left if his team had lost that strike rate.
He is also hopeful his team can keep Scott McKenna and Lewis Ferguson, despite the potential £10m hole left by the Covid-19 shutdown.
McInnes said: “We face a situation where we’ve got to be mindful of the financial situation the club is in.
“We have the majority of the squad from last season under contract.
“Any manager would want to hold on to his best players for as long as possible and I’m no different. Hopefully that can be the case.”
Dons chairman Dave Cormack has put together a plan to get the club through the lockdown and McInnes knows he is unlikely to be adding to his squad unless players leave. He
BY SCOTT BURNS brought back Jonny Hayes from Celtic but only because the Irishman agreed to defer his wages for a year.
McInnes said: “We won’t be adding to the squad while the situation remains as it is.
“We can’t be asking staff and players and others within the club to look at certain measures, then continue to be flying in the face of that by signing player after player, which we won’t be doing.”
McInnes will lean heavily on youngsters again this season with the likes of Dean Campbell, Connor McLennan and Bruce Anderson all having followed McKenna into the first team.
The Dons boss said: “If we get a good crack at it with injuries this season, that extra year of development for the younger ones will help.
“Sometimes it’s good that you’ve managed to get so many of them on to the pitch.
“We’ve now got that core of young players who we hope can force their way in, along with the experienced players we have. If we can keep them fit, we can be as competitive as we want to be.
“There will still be a few clubs that can maybe still be active in the transfer market and deal with the situation.
“But there will be a load of clubs who’ll turn to blooding a few more youngsters.”