Birmingham City have recently announced that Sam Cosgrove has left the club to sign for League One side Shrewsbury Town on a season-long loan deal.

What's the story?

The 24-year-old signed for Birmingham back in January 2021, having caught the eye with a number of impressive performances at Aberdeen.

The forward netted 47 goals in 103 appearances for the Scottish outfit, which saw him earn a move to St Andrew's Stadium on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

Cosgrove has found regular game time hard to come by with Birmingham though, in what has been a frustrating move for him to date, whilst also not being the ideal scenario for the club's supporters, who would have hoped that he could replicate his strong showings in front of goal from his days in Aberdeen.

He's since moved to Shrewsbury Town on a season-long loan deal, and will be hoping he can make a good impression away from Birmingham this term.

It's the ideal move for all parties involved

There were high hopes for Cosgrove when he first signed for Birmingham and you can understand why, with the striker having an impressive record in front of goal whilst with Aberdeen.

However, for one reason or another, he hasn't hit the heights originally expected of him, with Cosgrove failing to score in 12 appearances for the Blues during the 2020/21 season.

He hadn't been included in the matchday squad for Lee Bowyer's side this term, which dropped a sizeable hint that his future could lie elsewhere.

Lee Bowyer already has strong options available to him though, with Scott Hogan and Lukas Jutkiewicz showing that they can perform to a high standard in the Championship, and they've got the ideal backups pushing them for their starting places in the team with Chuks Aneke and Jonathan Leko.

Therefore, the writing was pretty much on the wall for Cosgrove, who is valued at £1.35million according to Transfermarkt. He'll be hoping he can make a positive impact for Shrewsbury, as they look to build on a 17th-place finish in the League One standings last term.

Birmingham City's supporters are likely to feel as though the club have made the right call in sending Cosgrove out on loan, as he wouldn't have been featuring for the Blues' first-team anytime soon, so it makes sense for him to further his development in English football with a temporary move elsewhere this summer.