Exeter City: 10-goal loan star must be January benchmark in striker search | OneFootball

Exeter City are still crying out for a goal-scoring forward but any new arrival must match the quality and calibre of Jayden Stockley.

Here we go again.

Exeter City head into yet another window looking for that rarest of beasts - a forward who can score goals for them at League One level.

During his time at the club Gary Caldwell has signed James Scott, Mo Eisa, Admiral Muskwe, Jay Bird and Josh Magennis to fill the strikers' berths, as well as Millenic Alli who's predominantly played out wide but has featured up top at times.

Magennis is the current, undisputed, No.9, and he's picked up seven goals in 27 appearances which, by current standards, isn't bad. However, four of those have come in two FA Cup matches against sides from lower divisions.

Bird has two in 16 (both in the cups) while Eisa got one, via a huge deflection, in 11 games last season and Scott got four in 43 appearances, with just three in the league.

We're still waiting on an Admiral shot on target, never mind a goal, so that ship has probably sailed...

All in all it's a woeful return of seven goals from Caldwell-signed strikers in the last four windows so far, though Alli has 12 in 38 appearances with nine of those coming in League One.

You can argue among yourselves whether Alli is a striker or a winger, but his goals come in bursts and if he can add some consistency to his game he won't be at St James Park for long.

Exeter City need to sign a quality striker

The last out-and-out striker to come to St James Park and hit the ground running was probably Jayden Stockley, who hit 10 in 22 loan appearances after joining from Bournemouth in January 2016. He eventually signed permanently 18 months later and bagged 41 in 76 appearances in all competitions before leaving for Preston North End in January 2019.

Stockley's £100,000 fee remains the club's record signing and, without having the numbers, that figure must be in the lowest 25% of EFL clubs and, probably, League One clubs too.

We all know Exeter City is in the top 5% of the best run clubs in the country, with budgets being decided on and stuck to years in advance with no exceptions.

A recent survey of Supporters' Trust members put financial sustainability well ahead of the product on the pitch at the top of their priorities for how the club operates.

But that does feel like it's changing, certainly if discourse online is to be believed.

Gary Caldwell needs his talisman forward

If the board are serious about sticking with Caldwell through thick and thin, as they seem intent on doing, then surely that club record transfer fee has to be smashed and soon.

We're obviously not going to drop £500,000 on anyone this century but, with Jay Stansfield's mega-money move to Birmingham City over the summer releasing a steady flow of cash into the club's coffers over the coming years, the seemingly-likely departure of Jake Richards and Joel Randall moving for big money this month, there has to be some give in the budget to bring in a quality forward.

Sadly this month might see another sticking plaster arriving up top and rumours on that front are like hen's teeth, with January being a notoriously tough time to do good deals in.

Someone has to arrive up front next summer at the latest and it needs to be a forward who scores goals and does little else.

Stockley was a game-changing signing for Paul Tisdale in the latter stages of his time at the club and Matt Taylor had Sam Nombe to finally get us up out of League Two, with him ably assisted by Jevani Brown and Matt Jay of course.

City need a new Stockley and fast. Many supporters don't like the brand of football on offer at the moment and goals are hard to come by.

If one man could arrive and bag 10 between now and the end of the season the mood would be lifted considerably and City would go on to win enough games to make an unlikely playoff push a reality over the next few months.

Finding that man is another question altogether.