Aberdeen will not be the only club profiting from Sam Cosgrove's impending move to Birmingham City, with the striker's former club Carlisle United set to land a mini windfall, according to Alan Nixon.
The journalist believes that Carlisle inserted a clause in his move to the Scottish club that would guarantee them 20 per cent of the profit from his next move.
The move that took the target man north of the border in January 2018 is believed to have cost Aberdeen £40,000 (per the News & Star), so The Cumbrians are set to gain £392,000 when he makes the move to St Andrew's.
With many EFL clubs having a tough time of things when it comes to finances, the money will come as a big relief to Carlisle who could even end up strengthening their squad now before tomorrow's 11pm deadline, despite the fact they already sit top of League Two.
The profit resembles great business for the Cumbrian side, who only had Cosgrove on their books for five months, signing him in August 2017 following his release from Wigan Athletic.
Cosgrove had failed to make an appearance at the Latics, and had gone on loan spells to non-league sides Chorley, Barrow and North Ferriby United without scoring.
Quiz: Did each of these 18 ex-Birmingham City players ever score a goal at St Andrew’s?
Based on that, Cosgrove seemed to be a bit of a punt, and he only ended up starting his first Carlisle game 30 days before he departed for Scotland, ending up with one goal in eight league appearances.
He still showed enough for Derek McInnes to take a gamble on him, and the gamble has paid off as he's managed to turn Cosgrove into a goal-scorer, a good target man and has also turned £40,000 into £2 million.
The Verdict
It's nice to see a lower league success story come to fruition.
Carlisle themselves probably cannot believe that they let a £2 million player slip from their grasp, but he may not have developed the same if he had stuck around at Brunton Park.
There was probably no way of knowing either - he had played just eight league games (only three of them starts) for them but Aberdeen clearly saw something and it now looks like a very cheap gamble that has paid off.