Exeter City: Rangers view will have convinced Grecians to take pre-season punt - View | OneFootball

City have signed Rangers' Johnly Yfeko on loan and here's why it's an exciting deal for Exeter.

Highlights

Don’t say it too loudly, but there’s a sense of excitement growing around Gary Caldwell’s Grecians this summer.

Exeter City have been busy in the market and have got some deals done early, which is a lovely novelty.

We’ve been treated to some of the greatest hits in the transfer window too, with a loan keeper, a Scottish addition to the McGrecians’ ranks, and a player Caldwell’s worked with in the past all arriving. Vintage stuff.

But this summer there’s been something distinctly new to enjoy and it goes by the name, ‘loan with an option to buy’.

While this phrase is common across the footballing landscape, it’s not one often uttered down at St James Park and it broke into the Grecian lexicon with the arrival of towering defender Johnly Yfeko from Rangers on Tuesday.

What Johnly Yfeko can bring to Exeter City

This looks like a seriously exciting signing and ticks pretty much every box going in terms of City’s recruitment.

The 6’4” defender is left-footed and comes in to partially fill the Alex Hartridge and Zak Jules-shaped holes in City’s backline.

Exeter still need another left-sided stopper back there but Yfeko certainly goes a long way to shoring up that position.

He’s rangy, rapid and can certainly pick a pass to break the line and bypass opposition presses.

At 21, there's tonnes of progression to come from him and playing a full season of men’s football in League One will do him the world of good.

Details of Johnly Yfeko’s transfer to Exeter City

He’s on loan at Exeter for an initial 12 months but there’s that little carrot of the option to buy which has set certain pulses racing at EX4.

Obviously we have no idea at this stage if the pre-arranged fee is actually realistic, if it will prove to be too steep, or an absolute bargain. With everything in football, only time will tell.

But, assuming the deal has been done at a level where it’s a realistic possibility that the loan can become permanent next summer, then this could be a fantastic bit of business.

Yfeko’s played for some big clubs, coming through the ranks at Tottenham before joining Leicester and Rangers so he clearly has a lot of ability and a wealth of elite-level training behind him.

Perhaps the most exciting element of a player that we’ve not actually seen in action yet is the reaction of Gers supporters who seem disappointed he’s been loaned out with the potential of leaving Ibrox forever.

A quick glance at the comments on stories linking him to Exeter, as well as the posts confirming the move from both clubs on X, tell you this guy has something about him.

Now, we started this piece by looking at some City transfer window traditions - and glowing recommendations from fans of other clubs for our signings is certainly not among them.

Exeter City’s transfer history

If anything, it had become a bit of a running joke that players like Nicky Law and Jevani Brown would rock up at City with poor reports from fans of their previous clubs only to go on and smash it at City.

This is slowly changing now and Ed Francis and Joe Whitworth in particular have both arrived in the south west with glowing reports and best wishes from Gateshead and Crystal Palace fans respectively.

While no transfer is ever a guaranteed success, the signs for Yfeko are really promising and, as he joins the club with fans from Rangers showing some surprise, that’s another healthy and exciting element Caldwell’s brought to Exeter as he works to build a squad who can finish top half in what looks a particularly difficult League One this season.

Perhaps, finally, City are no longer a refuge for players coming back from injury or heading into the last-chance saloon and long may it continue.