Exeter City academy conveyer belt has plenty more talent
THE players just keep rolling off the Exeter City Academy conveyor belt and club captain Pierce Sweeney says there is more to come in the coming years.
Having seen the likes of Matt Grimes, Ethan Ampadu, Ollie Watkins, Joel Randell, Archie Collins and Josh Key break into the first team and then move on for significant sums, the Grecians have also prospered financially from significant sell-on clauses in the sale of some of those players.
The Grecians then learned they will collect another £1.5 million-plus after Academy graduate Jay Stansfield moved from Fulham to Birmingham City on transfer deadline day with the suggested £10 million fee not just a new League One record, but one that brings Exeter some welcome money as a result of a sell-on clause they insisted on when he moved from their Academy to Cravan Cottage back in the summer of 2019.
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With that coming off the back of the European Championships and Watkins’ memorable last minute winner for England against the Netherlands in the semi-final, it meant the spotlight shone bright on one of the country’s most productive and prosperous Academies - a Category Three Academy at that.
“I think the last four months of football outside of this club has shone a light on the club even more with (Ollie) Watkins in the summer and Stanno obviously going for a minimal fee to Birmingham, but I am not surprised,” club captain Sweeney said.
“We have let an awful lot of really, really good players leave this football club for big fees and I am not surprised that Stanno has gone for that sort of money.
“I am disappointed that he is not a Premier League footballer any more; I spoke to him a couple of weeks before he signed – I don’t know why he was looking for my advice! But I just said to him you either go with your heart or go with your head and stay a Premier League footballer for as long as you can, but he has obviously gone with his heart and a project with Birmingham and fair play to him. He has young kids and a partner and he has cemented his future.
“But I don’t know how the club keep doing it. Every season I have been here, there are one or two top talents coming through again and we have seen it with Liam Oakes and Louie Cayless.”
Both Oakes and Cayless, who became the club’s second youngest ever first team player in the EFL Trophy clash with Swindon Town earlier this month, featured for Exeter in pre-season and are benefiting not just from training with the first team, but also featuring in the EFL Trophy and the Under-21 Premier League Cup.
Along with Jake Richards, who has just turned 17, it seems City have more players ready to make the next step up with Sweeney having high hopes for one player in particular.
“I will be surprised if Louie Cayless is still here in two years because he is up there with one of the best technical footballers I have seen come through the Academy,” the Irishman said.
“I think people will probably measure him against Ethan Ampadu, but I think Ethan was a different type of player and I don’t think he is technically as good as Louis Cayless, but Ethan was a man and dictating to players like Ryan Harley where to go on the pitch, pointing fingers and stuff.
“I am excited to see who we bring in, there is an awful lot of talent coming through. The Academy keeps producing and let’s hope they keep coming because the club needs it for financial reasons. People on the outside think the Academy is brilliant – and it is – so we need to keep moving that forward.”
The Grecians are back in action on Saturday when they welcome Stevenage to St James Park in a League One clash that kicks-off at 12.30pm.