Blackpool should turn to Exeter City player to replace the departing Jerry Yates: Opinion | OneFootball

Blackpool will hope history repeats itself as they find themselves back in League One under the management of Neil Critchley.

The 44-year-old has returned to Bloomfield Road after leaving the club last summer to be part of Steven Gerrard’s backroom team at Aston Villa.

However, it wasn’t a job he held for long, as Gerrard was sacked a few months later. Critchley got back into management with QPR, but it was a spell he will want to forget.

So, he now returns to Blackpool with the same aim as last time to get out of League One.

The Seasiders task may just be about to get a little harder, as they look set to lose star striker Jerry Yates.

Yates is set join Swansea City after they had a bid accepted for £2.5 million, as reported by Pete O’Rourke.

Yates has been a wanted man for a while now, but the 26-year-old is keen to join the Swans despite interest from elsewhere.

The forward, who scored 46 times in 139 appearances, will be hard to replace for Blackpool this summer, but it is essential the club do all they can to bring in a new forward.

That said, the club should turn their attention to Exeter City and sign striker Sam Nombe, as he could be the perfect fit for the Seasiders.

Why should Blackpool sign Sam Nombe?

Even with the money from Yates, Blackpool are not going to be a team that has loads of money in the bank.

So, whoever they turn to as a replacement is going to be someone they can bring in for a fairly low price.

This is one factor to why Nombe may be the perfect replacement for Yates as he is contracted to Exeter until next summer, so it may be the final chance for the club to sell for a fee, and he is currently valued around the €500k mark.

The 24-year-old is by no means a like-for-like replacement, but he is coming off an excellent campaign for the Grecians, where he scored 15 goals and assisted eight in 43 league appearances.

Nombe is a player who has always caught the eye with his goalscoring attributes, but this season he took his game to a new level.

Not only was it his best return for goals, but the forward was also key going forward with seven assists.

Nombe able to show his presence at the top end of the pitch, with 0.5 key dribbles per 90 minutes as well as averaging two shots per game.

The 24-year-old averaged 12.4 passes per game, with 0.5 of them key passes. He had a pass success rate of 58.1% come the end of the season. In the 2022/23 season, Nombe picked up a WhoScored.com rating of 6.80.

Nombe excelled very well in England’s third tier last season and is hot property right now; this summer could be the ideal time for a team like Blackpool - who you'd expect to be at the sharp end of the table - to come in and move him on from Exeter.

The Grecians will not want to lose the striker, but given his contract situation, the club may have no option but to sell the young forward.

Nombe may not be an out-and-out replacement for someone like Yates, but he is a player who can come in and share some of the load with the goals and possibly play behind a natural number nine as Critchley searches for another promotion.