Exeter City have struck gold with January deal but Brighton could hit jackpot too | OneFootball

Ed Turns has stated he joined Exeter City because they're good at selling players on and Brighton look set to benefit from that pretty quickly.

Pretty much every club in the game is a selling club and Exeter City are no different.

It can be tricky to get quality players in their prime to head down to the south west and it's a never-ending problem that we've seen over the years.

The Grecians are known for developing home-grown players and selling them on, but the focus in the last few years has shifted towards finding rough diamonds from elsewhere to polish up and profit from.

Millenic Alli is the most recent example, he arrived at St James Park in January 2024 for a fairly-small but undisclosed fee and left 12 months later to join Luton Town for a reported £1.5m.

Alli's departure is a big loss but it's money like that which keeps the wheels turnings and all things considered it's a decent deal - though he wasn't properly replaced.

The next cab off the rank looks like it could be centre back Ed Turns, who joined on a permanent undisclosed fee from Brighton & Hove Albion in the last window.

He would have been in demand after good spells at Leyton Orient and Crewe Alexandra on loan over the last few years.

But it quickly became apparent that he had been lured to Devon's capital with the promise that he would be allowed to leave in an upward direction quickly if his performances drew attention and the offer was right.

Ed Turns already eyeing next transfer

Within the first minute of his introduction to the club, he essentially revealed that he saw the club as a stepping stone and was thinking long-term and about his next move.

Asked by the club's media team why he had chosen City, Turns said: "I speak to people and they tell me how good the club are at selling young players on.

"Being young myself it was more about how I felt and how well I got on with Gary [Caldwell] on the Zoom call. It felt right speaking to him, being a defender himself, I think can really develop me.

"Being here, a good club, a League One club, positive, on the up, I think all of that together really made my mind up."

At some clubs, those comments and the not-so-subtle message might have caused outrage but City fans know the score and if you've got a USP, you might as well try and make the most of it.

On the pitch, Turns had a tricky start, receiving a red card on an otherwise impressive debut for the Grecians in the thrilling penalty-shootout loss to Premier League high flyers Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup 4th Round.

It meant he picked up a three-game ban and was forced to wait until March 4th to make his return and he, along with fellow January defensive arrivals Angus MacDonald and Alex Hartridge, have had a stunning impact.

Ed Turns having a big early impact at Exeter City

After a spell of shipping goals left, right and centre, City have now registered three successive clean sheets with Reading and the admittedly toothless Shrewsbury Town and Mansfield Town failing to breach Turns and his pals at the back.

Obviously, that's a run that can't continue indefinitely but it's very promising and the Grecians now find themselves hurtling away from a relegation battle that looked unavoidable.

If Turns keeps his early performances up he, like Alli, will not be at City for long and he'll get his stated desire of heading back up the pyramid in no time.

Brighton brought him through and helped create a player who is set to go on and have a very good, at the least, EFL career and they're a very well run club.

It's unthinkable to imagine that they didn't include a sell-on clause in the deal that brought Turns to Exeter and they could be set to make another windfall on the 22-year-old before his contract expires in the summer of 2027.

Hopefully, the young defender can put in consistent performances that catch the eye of some bigger fish and if he turns a nice profit he'll go on to be another success story for Exeter.