Exeter City manager Matt Taylor reveals one player nearly left the club on transfer deadline day

Colchester Gazzette

An Exeter City player very nearly left the Grecians on the final day of the transfer window, but a suitable fee could not be agreed, Matt Taylor has revealed.

The Grecians January business only saw loan moves happen, with forwards Kieran Phillips and Offrande Zanzala coming in, while George Ray joined fellow League Two club Leyton Orient and Ben Seymour linked up with Jordan Dyer, also on loan from the club, at Bath City, however Exeter nearly sold a player with just hours left of deadline day.

"It was my busiest final day," Taylor said. "We had an offer early on in the window, but nothing came back in until the Friday before the weekend going into the final day of the transfer window and then an offer came in at 6:30 on Monday.

"There was some back and forth between both clubs trying to get the deal done because it would have been in our best interests, but we couldn’t quite match each other’s valuation, so it didn't happen, simple as that.

"In terms of the player concerned we were very open with him and he’s really calm in relation to what’s going to happen next with his Exeter career going forward and the buying club understood it and ourselves as a selling club understood it."

A similar situation occurred at the end of the summer window when academy graduate Joel Randall departed the club late on in the window, although that move came about with more than three weeks of the trading period left, whereas here Exeter would have been left with hours to potentially find a replacement.

As are the circumstances of being a League Two club with a flowing academy, Exeter do find themselves as a selling club at times and it's possible this could be another example of the academy reaping financial rewards, but Taylor did not reveal the identity of the player in question.

"We’ll keep (his name) confidential out of respect for the player, the club involved and ourselves," he said.

"In all honesty there was only one club involved, you quite often get situations towards the end of the window where other clubs are going against each other, but we certainly didn’t have that instance.

"It was very much our valuation and the buying club going towards that valuation, but we just couldn’t quite get the right match, not to say both parties didn’t try, we understand the magnitude of that moment, but we move onto the next window."