The upcoming summer transfer window could be the optimum time for Aberdeen to cash in on midfield star Lewis Ferguson.
Scotland international Ferguson only has two years remaining on his Dons contract, which expires in summer 2024.
There are only realistically three transfer windows left to secure a sizeable transfer fee for the 22-year-old.
Those windows are this summer, January 2023 and summer 2023.
From January 2024, Ferguson, if he’s still at Pittodrie, would be free to reach a pre-contract agreement with another club to leave for free that summer.
With each successive transfer window, the fee Aberdeen can secure for the midfielder will inevitably decrease as his deal runs down.
Ferguson is absolutely fundamental to Aberdeen and makes the team tick.
There is no doubt retaining the midfielder for next season would be a major boost for manager Jim Goodwin’s squad.
However, every player has a price and the timing of transfers is crucial to secure maximum benefit for the selling club and the player as well.
Ferguson slapped in a transfer request last May after Aberdeen knocked back a low-ball offer of under £2m from Premier League Watford.
The Dons rejected Ferguson’s transfer request.
Ferguson clearly feels he is ready to play at a higher level.
His form this season and elevation into the Scotland squad proves he is ready for that jump up.
To his credit, being denied a dream move to the English top flight did not affect Ferguson’s commitment to the Dons in the slightest.
Ferguson buckled down and focused on doing his best for the Reds this season.
He has been the club’s top performer in an underwhelming season, netting 14 goals.
If the chance of another big move comes, and the price is right, surely he deserves that opportunity.
Italian Serie A side Cagliari sent two representatives to watch Ferguson in action in the 3-1 defeat of Hibs at Pittodrie last month.
Cagliari are understood to be set to launch a £3.5m move for Ferguson in the summer.
Ferguson is worth more than that, but £3.5m could be an opening bid.
If the midfielder were to be sold this summer, it would constitute the ideal blueprint for securing and developing players.
Aberdeen signed Ferguson as a raw teenager from Hamilton for around £250,000 in development compensation in summer 2018.
Since then he has started 163 games with just one appearance off the bench.
Sign a young talent, develop him, get 150-plus first team games and then sell them for a huge profit at the optimum time. Then invest the money back into the squad. And place a hefty sell-on clause, ideally 20%, on any future transfers so that the Dons can cash in further.
That is a formula for success.
Such is Ferguson’s importance to Aberdeen when he is fit and available, he starts.
That has been the case under Jim Goodwin and previous managers Derek McInnes and Stephen Glass.
Aberdeen could face a win-win situation with Ferguson this summer.
It is a win if he remains at Pittodrie beyond the imminent transfer window, as he would be so key to Goodwin’s team.
It would also be a win if Ferguson was sold for a hefty transfer fee that could subsequently be reinvested into Goodwin’s summer rebuild.
Learnings from McKenna’s eventual departure
Lessons must be learnt from the transfer saga of Scott McKenna.
Aberdeen rejected a £6.5 bid from Aston Villa for McKenna in the final days of the summer transfer window in 2018. That would have been staggered in instalments.
That Aston Villa bid came too late to find a replacement for the Scotland international.
However, that was the optimum time to sell McKenna.
The Reds ultimately secured £3m when McKenna switched to Championship Nottingham Forest in September 2020.
Aberdeen could also be confronted with a summer move for teenage right-back Calvin Ramsay.
Premier League Liverpool are reportedly keen on the 18-year-old.
Ramsay was on the radar of a host of clubs in the English Premier and the German Bundesliga in the January window.
Aberdeen rejected a £4.8m bid from Italian Serie A Bologna for Ramsay in January.
Boss Goodwin recently confirmed he has summer exit contingency plans for Ferguson and Ramsay.
If either – or both – are sold, Goodwin is confident he will find strong replacements.
A major rebuild is set for the summer and whether Ferguson and Ramsay remain will be pivotal to that.
Kill off relegation play-off threat now
Aberdeen need to immediately kill off any slim threat of being dragged into a Premiership relegation play-off battle.
A win against Livingston at Pittodrie in the Reds’ first post-split bottom six game should be enough to end that slim play-off threat.
Aberdeen are six points ahead of St Johnstone, who currently occupy 11th spot – the relegation play-off berth.
However, if the Red lose to Livingston and Saints beat Dundee on the same day, the situation could become very precarious.
Aberdeen’s advantage over Saints would be slashed to just three points with a trip to McDiarmid Park looming in the penultimate game of the season.
Suddenly the focus would switch from pushing to finish the season with a semblance of positivity and a seventh-placed finish – to keeping Saints at bay.
Aberdeen’s season has been a disaster that Aberdeen supporters cannot wait to see the back of.
However, it is vital it doesn’t get any worse.
They need to see off Livingston, and/or Dundee, at home to eradicate that spectre of the relegation play-offs.
What is clear is the Reds cannot afford to produce the low levels shown in the 1-0 loss to Ross County that consigned the club to a bottom-half finish.
That was a must-win game to secure a spot in the top six and the Reds couldn’t deliver.
Hibs knee-jerk dismissal of Maloney
Hibs’ decision to sack Shaun Maloney as manager after just four months is shocking.
Maloney wasn’t even afforded the opportunity of a summer window to try to rebuild the team and imprint his footballing philosophy.
Hibs may have lost 2-1 to Edinburgh rivals Hearts in the Scottish Cup at the weekend, but they played some good football.
There were signs of what Maloney hoped to achieve. He wasn’t given the chance to deliver.
Hibs are hardly sending out a positive message in the hunt for a new manager.
They axed Jack Ross in December – despite him leading the club to the League Cup final.
Ross also delivered a third-place finish in the Premiership last season.
Patience is clearly thin on the ground at Easter Road.
