Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday experience shows Crystal Palace should pick Exeter City over EFL rivals: View | OneFootball

Exeter City are in the market for a keeper and have proven they can handle promising stoppers.

They say ‘never fall in love with loan players,’ but Exeter City fans have been left head over heels by a fair few borrowed footballers in recent years.

From Jay Stansfield’s dream homecoming to Ryan Woods shoring up the midfield last season, there have been lots of shrewd short-term signings since the start of this decade.

It doesn’t always work out of course, as Admiral Muskwe and Harry Smith will attest.

But when City’s loans land they land in style and one area where they’ve smashed it out of the park is between the sticks.

First, Cameron Dawson wooed fans on loan from Sheffield Wednesday in the promotion season of 2021/22 before Aston Villa's Viljami Sinisalo swept Grecians off their feet last term.

There are good reasons why both loans were such a hit. Both are very good keepers at this level and their proximity to the Big Bank certainly helps build a rapport with the supporters.

Both fully bought into the club, the fans, the team and it showed.

Exeter City’s loan goalkeepers

In Dawson’s case, it was a rebuild job. He was facing the scrapheap at Hillsborough but was able to put in consistent performances in League Two for City as they went up in second place, keeping 19 clean sheets in 50 appearances in all competitions.

He returned to The Owls to make 53 appearances before securing a good move to Rotherham in League One over the summer.

Sinisalo’s case was slightly different as he’s a younger keeper on the up who had no chance of playing for his parent club. He headed to Devon’s capital on the back of an unsatisfactory loan at Burton Albion.

He made just eight appearances for the Brewers before being recalled from the Pirelli in January 2023 but 18 months later he had cleaned up at Exeter’s awards night and went on to make 50 appearances and keep 14 clean sheets in a decidedly up-and-down season for City.

Sinisalo, like Dawson, went back to his parent club in a better place and both players’ careers look back on track.

Exeter’s goalkeeping options this season

It seems like City are going to dive into the loan market for a first-choice keeper again this season, with Crystal Palace’s England U18 keeper Joe Whitworth a key target, according to journalist Alan Nixon on his Patreon.

The Grecians have the promising Harry Lee, 19, on the books as well as solid back up in Shaun MacDonald.

Lee is likely to be loaned out again this year to get some more experience and hopefully, that can be at a National League side after spells at Weston-Super-Mare and Salisbury in the NL South.

Joe Whitworth transfer latest

Nixon says City are battling with Doncaster Rovers and Shrewsbury Town for his signature, but City's proven positive experiences with borrowed keepers could give them the edge.

If he’s as good as he looks you suspect he’ll get a long run in the first team and will play every league minute on offer to him, like Dawson and Sinisalo before him.

Gary Caldwell has revealed that City are working on more deals and he hoped to have at least one incoming confirmed by the end of this week.

The ones that are close to being announced may not include Whitworth, though.

It feels like a deal that could drag on, as it did with Sinisalo's move last summer, and Palace may prefer to keep him around their first team for pre-season just like Villa did with their Finland-capped keeper.

Whitworth, 20, is short for a keeper at 5’9” but he's clearly well regarded at Selhurst Park and City’s history with loaned keepers should indicate he'd be in safe hands at Exeter in a move that should be perfect for all parties if it comes off.