"Need something different" - Derby County fan pundit's verdict with Blackpool close to deal | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

With a little more than a fortnight left of the summer transfer window and the League One season well underway, Paul Warne is still looking to make tweaks to his Derby County squad.

The Rams have been tipped as one of the frontrunners to go up this term but for Warne to win what would be a fourth promotion in four full seasons in the third tier, he may need one or two more signings before the window slams shut at the start of September.

The opening weekend defeat to Wigan Athletic and Carabao Cup loss to Blackpool highlighted that they're not quite where they'd like to be and though there is more positivity after Saturday's 3-0 win over Burton Albion, the team still looks short of forward firepower after the summer departure of 2022/23 top scorer David McGoldrick.

Derby County eye Sam Cosgrove

Conor Washington and Martyn Waghorn have both joined the club this summer but Derby have been linked with a host of other forwards as well.

Free agent Billy Sharp and Coventry City's Matty Godden are two others that have been named as potential targets but it looks as though neither will be making the move to Pride Park - with the former said to be in talks with LA Galaxy and the latter signing a new Sky Blues contract.

Sam Cosgrove is the latest striker to emerge on Derby's radar as Alan Nixon has reported that the Rams are among a number of League One clubs in pursuit of the out-of-favour Birmingham City marksman.

The towering forward scored goals for fun at Aberdeen but has struggled to make an impact since he joined the Blues in January 2021. He looked to have rediscovered his confidence while on loan at Plymouth Argyle last season - scoring 12 times as they won the third tier title.

League One rivals Blackpool are reportedly now the favourites to sign Cosgrove.

Derby County fan's stance on Sam Cosgrove

FLW's Derby fan pundit Shaun Woodward would have been happy to see Cosgrove join Warne's squad but isn't heartbroken by suggestions he's heading to Bloomfield Road instead as he feels the club need a different profile of forward.

"I've heard about the Sam Cosgrove rumours," he said.

"He's of a good age, he's in his 20s, which is rare for Derby. He's a big, tall and strong lad so he would compete with Jamie Collins up there, or sure.

"But his goal ratio, again, one in four and never scored higher than League One level. He had a good spell at Aberdeen but that's about it really in his professional career. He hasn't really scored goals anywhere else.

"Is he better than what we've got? I'm not so sure, however, it would be another body in the building, which we desperately need.

"But in my opinion, we need a number 10 that can play off Collins. We've got Martyn Waghorn and Conor Washington, who can do a similar role to Collins if needed so we need that player behind him - a bit of a David McGoldrick type, a little bit of a cleverer player that can find the gaps and play that ball, someone that can do something special, which we don't have at the moment.