Exeter City can turn to Wolves for transfer favour amid slumping form | OneFootball

Alfie Pond never made a league appearance for Exeter City before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers, but could he plug a gap in this Grecians side?

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

And, not to be overly dramatic, but the alarm bells are ringing and it's all hands on deck at Exeter City at the moment.

The Grecians are rock bottom of the League One form table with one point from their last six games and just two wins in the last 15 outings.

They haven't kept a clean sheet since mid November and have conceded 15 goals in their last four matches at St James Park.

Understandably the fans have started to lose patience and the attendance was well down on Tuesday night with supporters knowing they were likely to be on the back of a hiding against the high-flying Leyton Orient.

Despite the negativity, few probably expected to be 4-0 down at half-time and The Os ran out easy 6-2 winners come the final whistle.

The defence has fallen to pieces with injuries to Jack Fitzwater, Johnly Yfeko and Pierce Sweeney while Tristan Crama's loan ending probably cuts the deepest.

Exeter's recruitment drive to continue

Following a hectic Thursday of transfer in and outs with top scorer Millenic Alli leaving to join Luton Town for a sizable fee and Ryan Trevitt and Alex Hartridge returning until the end of the season on loan, there's still plenty to do before Monday night's deadline.

“We want to bring quality and with a physicality which will help the group." Caldwell told Devon Live after Tuesday's horror show.

“We are looking for those players and I am very confident come Monday we will bring players in.

"I understand the frustration, I’m frustrated but now we have something to spend to improve the group and it is a race against time.

"We need these players in yesterday and we are working hard to do it and I’m sure we will be better at the end of the window."

Caldwell now has a bit of cash to play with and City have received in the region of £1.5m for Alli, according to journalist Pete O'Rourke.

Pond would be perfect for Exeter

With Hartridge back in the building City, realistically, still need another central defender and, while we're getting the band back together, one young man who knows the club and has that physicality is academy product Alfie Pond.

The 20-year-old centre back left St James Park for Wolverhampton Wanderers on transfer deadline day in the 2022 summer window without making a league appearance for the club.

He's 6'3" now and clearly has the quality, making his Premier League debut for Wolves this season amid an injury crisis.

He's also appeared in the FA Cup and Carabao Cups this term and played nine games in all competitions for Stockport County last season as they were promoted from League Two.

He's surely prime for another loan spell and it might not take that much convincing to get the defender back to his hometown with the promise of first-team football, given the injuries and players who are out of favour with Gary Caldwell.

Pond ripe for another loan move

It would also be an important developmental step for the Exonian as he would get games at a higher level than he regularly has before.

City would be the perfect combination of a soft landing and a bit of pressure, with academy products getting plenty more rope than players brought in and the Grecians needing some stability and points quickly to stop the slump.

As proven once again by Thursday's activity, football is often a case of who you know, not what you know, and a big solution to one of Exeter's most pressing problems could, once again, have come from their academy.

The benefits for Wolves are plentiful, too. Pond should get a good run of games, and it's an environment that he knows, will be comfortable in, and one that will be allowed to make a few mistakes along the way without being hounded by the supporters.

If Gary Caldwell and his staff haven't asked the question re Pond then they really should have - the only question is, what's the world record for a number of incoming loans in a season?!