Exeter City: Millenic Alli and Reece Cole situations will be on Gary Caldwell’s mind | OneFootball

Exeter City could have some tough decisions regarding key men on the horizon.

Highlights

Following a positive start to the transfer window, with some useful players arriving and key positions being filled, a spanner has been thrown into Gary Caldwell’s Exeter City plans.

The City manager has declared himself pleased with the business done so far, and he's confirmed the club are working hard on more incomings.

Getting players in early to add to a good core squad carried over from the previous season feels like welcome new territory for Grecians, given the turnover in playing staff over the last few years.

Josh Magennis has arrived as a likely starter up front, while Jay Bird will provide competition and potentially allow Sonny Cox to go out on loan if there’s another attacking incoming.

Jack McMillan offers a versatile option from right-back, while Ryan Woods was at the top of everyone’s wish list after his impressive loan spell in the second half of the 2023/24 campaign.

And, whisper it, but Ed Francis could potentially be an upgrade on Tom Carroll who has left to join MK Dons at the end of his contract.

But, as always with City, there could be a fly in the ointment with reported interest in Alli and murmurs about Reece Cole’s long-term future.

Indeed, the situations of that pair are likely to be playing on Caldwell's mind...

Millenic Alli

Alli arrived from FC Halifax in January 2024 to help solve City’s striker crisis, but fans were forced to wait until March 2nd to see their new man in action. A few cameos followed before he really got going in April with a goal off the bench in the thrilling 2-2 comeback draw with Leyton Orient five weeks after his debut.

Three starts followed along with three goals in the final three games of the season and that clearly hasn’t gone unnoticed by clubs higher up the pyramid. Football Insider report that Blackburn, Cardiff City, and Bristol City are all keen on the Dublin-born striker, 24.

City will be in no rush to cash in due to the length of time remaining on his contract and the high hopes they have for him but the Grecians are fundamentally a selling club and everyone has their price.

More pressingly, a potential Alli departure would throw Caldwell’s plans for the coming season off-kilter as such interest could surely not have been anticipated this early.

Caldwell and technical director Marcus Flitcroft will have a plan – but this would not have been in it. The attacking department was the biggest issue for City last term and surely is the area most work will have gone into over the summer and in pre-season.

To lose Alli, who is expected to be a key component, would be a big blow if his end-of-season form is anything to go by and could put Exeter back to square one in terms of overall attacking tactics, patterns and style.

If Alli is to be prised away it will be for a big fee and, at the end of the day, it will have to be considered as good business for a player who’s played just 404 minutes for the club.

Reece Cole

Cole’s situation is one that could come to a head at any time. He’s contracted until the end of this season with an option to extend for another 12 months after that, but as we learned with the Zak Jules extension – or lack of – it’s not clear who holds the cards there.

The fact that it’s called out as a ‘club option’ in new signing and contract announcements might hint that the ball’s in Cole’s court in this case.

He had a fantastic campaign in 2023/24 and it’s no surprise that City’s form went back on the upswing once he fully recovered from a month-long injury in November and got back into form at the start of 2024.

He finished as the club’s top scorer on seven, which isn’t bad for a midfielder, but mainly reflects on City’s struggles in the final third with their forwards last year.

He was City's best contracted player and it was a shame to see a good season only rewarded with one trophy at the awards night.

There are feint social-media murmurs about interest from other clubs in the remainder of this window but nothing concrete has surfaced yet.

If Cole has the power to decide his future the question is, do City cash in now, in January, or can they convince the popular midfielder, 26, to stay at St James Park into the 2026/27 season?