AFC Wimbledon: Nightmare Birmingham City loanee still lives long in the memory | OneFootball

Sam Cosgrove had a woeful loan spell at AFC Wimbledon during the latter half of 2021/22, which has never been forgotten by fans

While January 2022 may be three years ago now, some of the happenings at AFC Wimbledon that went on back then are still fresh in the memory.

Chief among them is the loan transfer of Sam Cosgrove to help replace the talismanic figurehead of Ollie Palmer in the squad, which was a loan move that was doomed to fail from the start.

From being tasked with the impossible job of replacing Palmer's goals up top, to helping a young squad by virtue of being one of the few players in that team over the age of 25, his loan transfer was a nightmare and is still useful as a lesson for the Dons today.

Sam Cosgrove was a failed and wasted loan transfer for AFC Wimbledon

Cosgrove was bought in as a temporary solution to what had very quickly become a large and concerning problem.

When Palmer was dubiously allowed to leave Wimbledon late in the January window following an offer from Wrexham – a National League at the time – it caused uproar. While the forward was nearing his 30s, he was still scoring goals and was a figurehead up top so fans felt that choosing the money over the player was the wrong call for the club to make..

To quell this anger from the fans, the Dons moved quickly to bring in Cosgrove from Birmingham City to help bolster the forward line, which former Fulham youngster Terry Ablade had been added to earlier in the window.

But the Blues loanee struggled to find any sort of form in a yellow and blue shirt.

His first appearance for the club was a 67-minute cameo against Charlton, having failed to sign in time to feature against Cheltenham Town the previous matchday, and it would take another 11 appearances, ten of which were starts, for him to score.

In all the games preceding the disaster that was Crewe Alexandra away in April 2022, he had failed to contribute much, not performing targetman tasks that Palmer did with ease, and just did not provide the threat that Wimbledon needed in such a youthful, and at times, toothless squad.

At Crewe, Cosgrove put the Dons 1-0 up in the 19th minute with a stunning strike which gave the travelling fans some hope that the side would finally be able to hold on to a much-needed win in their fight against relegation.

But his mistake then turned the game on its head. A poor pass back from the halfway line to goalkeeper Nik Tzanev was intercepted, gifting the opposition an equaliser, and from there, the young Dons side would crumble and lose the game 3-1.

Sam Cosgrove's failed loan lives long in the memory of AFC Wimbledon fans

The reason why the now-Barnsley striker's poor and ultimately unsuccessful loan spell sticks long in the memory is that it inadvertently kicked off a trend of letting high-value, well-performing players leave in the winter window and then replacing them with, in the majority, inadequate players.

While there have been the likes of Ali Al-Hamadi and Josh Kelly who arrived mid-season and took a little bit of time to get started in their respective careers but now look to be good business, there have also been the failed moves of Saikou Janneh and John Kymani-Gordon who just did not have an impact during their loan spells at all and failed to help replace those that departed in their place.

And even before the Cosgrove fiasco there were the failed moves of Julien Lamy and Corie Andrews that show the Dons can never really get it right in the January transfer window when it comes to replacing or bolstering their forward line.

And when things have gone wrong in previous windows, the form and, ultimately, the end of season table finish has paid the price for the clubs' poor transfer business.

In Cosgrove'a failed half-season, Wimbledon went from hovering just above the relegation zone before January, to 23rd and relegated and without a league win in 27 games. And after that disastrous season, each of the following have seen brilliant form that has seen the club vying for play-off positions pre-January, only for form to suffer in the second half and see the Dons slip away during the business end of the campaign.

The hope from a Dons perspective is that the failed January transfer decision of the past can be a learning experience for the club's decision-makers and that this month can be different.