Ollie Watkins took a touch, held off Stefan de Vrij and fired at goal.
The net rippled and the thousands of England fans inside Signal Iduna Park erupted. Back home, men, women and children lost their minds amid the ecstasy of the last-gasp Euro 2024 winner which knocked out the Netherlands – and sent England to a second successive European Championship final.
At a small, community-driven third-tier club with a big heart, that sits 587 miles away from Dortmund, the moment had particular significance.
‘It was like, has that really happened?’ Arran Pugh, Exeter City’s academy director and Watkins’ coach at Under-12 and Under-13 level, tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘I jumped off the sofa and was delighted for England but more so for Ollie. You could see the joy in his face. It was an inspirational moment for our young players and the club.
‘What better way of showing you can realise your dreams than a player from Exeter, who played in League Two and is from the South West, scoring that goal.’
Watkins, now a holder of 20 England caps and scorer of 76 Premier League goals, is one of several stars to have been developed by Exeter’s renowned academy. After joining at Under-11 level, he played 78 times for the first team until he left for Brentford for £1.8million in 2017.
Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins is one of several stars developed by Exeter’s renowned academy
Watkins scored the winner for England in their Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands
‘The aim has always been to develop players for Premier League and international football,’ adds Pugh, now in his 19th season coaching at Exeter after previously playing in their youth system before enjoying a career in non-League.
‘When I first started we said we’re here to develop players for teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid and England. People were like “come on, it’s Exeter City”. But we’ve had Ollie Watkins play for England and in the Champions League. Ethan Ampadu has played in the Champions League and captained Leeds in the Premier League. Jay Stansfield played in this summer’s Under-21 Euros final for England. People thought it was too much, but we believed in it.’
Pugh is right to highlight Exeter’s success stories. Alongside Watkins, Stansfield and Ampadu – who was poached by Chelsea aged 16 after making his debut at 15 – the likes of Dean Moxey, George Friend, Alfie Pond and Matt Grimes have played in the top flight after coming through the club’s academy.
The EFL is littered with talented graduates shining too, and last season 98 per cent of Exeter’s team-sheets featured at least one academy player. The Grecians had previously been on a run of 479 matches with a graduate in their starting XI.
Youth development is a source of pride for a club owned by its community. The Exeter City Supporters’ Trust gained control in 2003 when the financial landscape was dire and the team was in non-League. The pillar of their ownership has been sustainability, a key component of which is the production of homegrown stars.
‘The academy has done some brilliant work, but if a club doesn’t believe in youth, you have no chance,’ Pugh explains. ‘We’ve been very fortunate that the Trust and the club have been so supportive of the academy and the development of young players. This means the good work we’ve done has been allowed to be recognised because players have had an opportunity.’
He is full of praise for staff, including former academy heads Eamonn Dolan and Simon Hayward along with club president Julian Tagg. Tagg was part of the original board when the Trust took over and has always been an advocate for the youth set-up.
‘You’ve got to have good people,’ Pugh adds. ‘You can have the loveliest buildings – and we’ve got a far better building now than we’ve had before because of the success. But even when we had wooden shacks, we still had success because we had good people inside those shacks who cared about the players, put them first and wanted them to do well.’
A key part of Exeter’s ethos is their commitment to producing young homegrown stars
Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu made his debut for the club aged 15 before he joined Chelsea
Exeter have always prided themselves on being innovative. Before the Elite Player Performance Plan was introduced in 2012 – a long-term youth development strategy that revolutionised academies and introduced regulations alongside the categorisation of clubs – many of the new measures were already in place.
This included partnerships with local schools, a focus on technical development and bio-banding – the practice when players feature across age groups to support their growth – and youngsters train with the first team when ready, whatever their age.
As Pugh alluded to, facilities have developed immensely. This has been boosted by player sales and subsequent progression. Exeter received around £4m in a sell-on fee when Watkins joined Villa from Brentford for £28m in 2020. That effectively funded a new £3.5m training centre.
Elsewhere, £750,000 from Matt Grimes’ £1.75m sale to Swansea City in 2015 supported new pitches at the training ground. Those sales have also allowed Exeter to compete with larger contemporaries in the third tier and they regularly post a profit in their end-of-year accounts.
A culture of patience is similarly integral and Matt Jay is cited as one example. Jay, now 29, joined Exeter’s academy at the age of eight. The attacking midfielder, who captained the club, was sold to Colchester in 2023, but not before scoring 56 goals in 206 games – including the one that sealed the Grecians’ return to League One in 2022 after a decade away.
‘It took a long time until he was playing regularly but the club stuck with him,’ Pugh adds. ‘A lot of teams may have let that player go because he wasn’t in the first team at 19. That long-term approach is key.’
Jay also benefited from Exeter’s links with local non-League clubs through loan spells, which are viewed as a great platform to gain experience. Watkins even enjoyed a successful half-season stint at National League South side Weston-Super-Mare during his formative years.
Despite the success stories, many more do not make it, yet right through Exeter’s academy a holistic approach is taken. Players are instilled with qualities described as ‘must haves’ which the club believe will help them succeed whatever they do in life. This includes traits like work ethic, bravery, resilience, attitude and competitiveness.
‘If a club doesn’t believe in youth, you have no chance,’ says Exeter City academy director Arran Pugh
Former Exeter captain Matt Jay rewarded the club’s patience with some notable exploits, sealing the Grecians’ return to League One in 2022 after a decade away
None of this makes a difference without managerial support though. A notable aspect of the Trust’s ownership is they have never sacked a manager.
Dolan left to join Reading’s academy, Alex Inglethorpe made a similar move to Tottenham, Paul Tisdale departed at the end of his contract and soon took over MK Dons, while Matt Taylor was poached by Rotherham. Current Exeter boss Gary Caldwell has now been in his role for more than three years. It is a unique and welcome form of stability at an EFL club.
‘They have all been hugely important and added different bits to the academy,’ Pugh says. Tisdale worked closely with the youth set-up and Taylor’s previous work in the academy saw him fasttrack several youngsters, who then thrived. This was aided by the unique circumstances of the Covid era and Joel Randall (now at Bolton), Josh Key (Swansea), Archie Collins (Peterborough) and Jack Sparkes (Bristol Rovers) are just four players who were thrown in and made their names at that time.
Caldwell has continued to support youth despite the increasing challenges of competing at a higher level in League One, where Exeter have secured three mid-table finishes.
‘A big part of Gary’s appeal was his work with youngsters and that is an essential part of managing Exeter,’ Pugh adds. ‘It’s harder now to give players opportunities at a higher level so the pressure is on the academy to develop better players.’
Exeter’s position in the footballing food chain continues to be a battle. When youngsters have been poached by bigger clubs, their status as a Category 3 academy means they don’t often receive what they believe is fair.
For example, in 2018 a tribunal ruled Chelsea had to pay a minimum £1.3m, potentially rising to £2.5m for Ampadu. This remains a bone of contention for the Grecians, who at the time expressed their ‘disappointment’ and argued it ‘sent the wrong message’ to clubs determined to produce home-grown players.
The undisclosed fee for Stansfield’s move to Fulham in 2019 was reluctantly accepted. The club felt it was below his true value, but acknowledged it was more than an arbitration would have ruled.
Exeter boss Gary Caldwell continues to play a key role in promoting youth at the third-tier club
Jay Stansfield, who came through the Exeter academy and is now with Birmingham, played in this summer’s Under 21 Euros final for England
They did manage to include add-ons and a sell-on fee, a detail that came in handy when Stansfield – who is the son of the legendary late Exeter striker Adam – joined Birmingham for £20m last year. Stansfield, who left at 16, did at least spend a season on loan with his boyhood club in 2022-23.
This issue of retention reared its head in the summer. Jake Richards won League One’s Apprentice of the Year last season after debuting aged 16. Yet, despite an unprecedented offer and lengthy negotiations, Richards chose to depart upon the conclusion of his scholarship. He later joined Luton, who on Thursday agreed a compensation fee with Exeter.
Pugh’s passion for youth development shines through. Even in his 19th season, nothing beats the joy of an academy product debuting for the first team or excelling at a higher level, like Watkins did in Germany.
‘Working in academies is long hours, it’s evenings and weekends, and not huge pay,’ he concludes. ‘But if you’ve got a passion for football and working with young people, when those things happen there’s no better feeling.
‘We have a picture of a game last year when seven academy boys played. They’re all celebrating together after Jake Richards scored. You can’t put those moments into words.’
Sonny Cox (No 19) is one of seven academy stars to feature for the first team this season
Lincoln’s set-piece success
This column has regularly highlighted the good work going on at Lincoln City, including their innovative and successful approach to set-pieces. The Imps have leant into AI to improve their record in this regard, with the 30 goals they scored from set-pieces in 2024-25 the most in the EFL.
And feats like that means Lincoln’s coaching team are generating interest from the biggest clubs. This week, Scott Fry was poached by Rangers to become their set-piece coach after a lengthy search, something that highlights the League One club’s continued growth.
Fry originally joined Lincoln as goalkeeper coach in 2022, before he was instructed with overseeing set-pieces ahead of last season.
Director of football Jez George paid tribute to Fry, saying: ‘Scott leaves with our absolute best wishes. We went on a journey together in terms of our use of AI to improve our processes and design of set-plays, which resulted in outstanding outcomes and inevitably attracted the attention of other clubs.’
Panini sticker heaven for EFL fans
In exciting news for football fans, the first ever Panini X EFL sticker collection featuring players past and present from all 72 clubs launched on Thursday.
The groundbreaking moment was marked by an event at the National Football Museum in Manchester on Wednesday night attended by several key EFL figures and current stars Billy Sharp, Will Grigg and Todd Cantwell.
You can start collecting stickers at retailers nationwide, including major supermarkets and independent stores close to EFL grounds. More information on the sticker collection can be found on the Panini website.
