Exeter City: Gary Caldwell must avoid repeat of MK Dons error at key stage | OneFootball

Mo Eisa was the great hope for Exeter City when he arrived in January 2024 but he flopped and the Grecians have to get it right up front this time.

It's never a good sign if a player's only real legacy at a club was a catchy song for the fans to sing.

And that is, sadly, the only real trace that Mo Eisa left at Exeter City during his six-month loan from MK Dons in the second half of last season.

The 30-year-old forward, now at F.C. Nassaji Mazandaran in Iran, did score one goal for City during his 11 appearances but that was more luck than judgment, as a long-range strike in the 2-1 win away at Wigan Athletic wrong-footed the keeper after a big deflection.

That was his first start for the Grecians, he would only make four more, but there was optimism on arrival that he would fire the goals to keep his on-loan side in the third tier.

In reality it always felt like a bit of a strange move as the Sudan international was struggling for game time at a club playing in a division lower than City - but he did have some pedigree and well over 50 EFL goals to his name.

Eisa was well liked in Milton Keynes and he fired his way into their all-time top 10 scorers list with 31 strikes in three years.

But with game time limited and his contract running down at the Buckinghamshire side, the striker decided it was time to look for his next move.

City's need for someone, anyone, to play up front was such that a risk had to be taken and so it was Eisa who landed at St James Park to try and arrest the slump City had endured in the second quarter of the 2023/24 campaign.

He joined at the end of the January window and took some time to get up to speed, but that speed didn't seem particularly rapid and that run of one goal in 11 games appears to have ended his career in England.

City signed Eisa with high hopes

While Eisa didn't do the business in front of goal, no striker has for City under their Scottish boss, with the few goals that are scored being shared around evenly among the squad.

But still, Caldwell had high hopes when the former Peterborough United man signed.

"He's got fantastic movement in and around the box and has scored goals at League One level," He told the BBC.

"He was really keen on coming to the club - there were other clubs interested but when we spoke to him and we told him what we were trying to do here he was very interested.

"We were the only club that he wanted to come to, so we were really happy that we managed to get that done."

Caldwell also revealed at the time that Eisa had been a long-term target for him while in charge of City.

While the need for a new striker is not as grave in January 2025 as it was in 2024, the feeling is that the side from Devon's capital will be in the market for a proven goal-scoring forward once the window opens.

Finding guys who can score goals in a Caldwell team is no easy task and a few have tried and failed, with James Scott, Eisa and now Josh Magennis struggling to post decent returns.

Exeter can't afford another failed striker signing

Eisa actually cost the Grecians a fee before leaving just a few months later and it's vital that Caldwell and his scouting team don't make the same sort of mistake again.

While City look to be comfortably mid table they are only five points off the drop zone in what is a really congested bottom half of League One.

Conversely, there are only seven points between the Devon club and Reading in sixth, so a top-half finish is also still very much on the cards.

If City are to move for a striker in January it has to be someone younger than Magennis and also needs to be someone who can pick up a few goals in the second half of the season.

Too many mistakes have been made in this department and it's a big month in the market for Caldwell with some of the St James Park faithful starting to lose patience with a lack of goals and a perceived negative style of play.