Exeter City: It is time to bring home club legend who's languishing at Torquay United | OneFootball

Exeter City great Matt Jay is clearly far too good for Torquay United so Gary Caldwell should swallow his pride and bring him home this summer.

He's done it before, but can he do it again?

Matt Jay is currently attempting to fire Torquay United to promotion to the National League after they could only finish second in the sixth tier following a thrilling conclusion to the National League South season last weekend.

It was another West country side, Truro City, who would keep the relatively-big-spending Gulls off top spot and send them into the play-offs.

Obviously, what happens now is completely unknown, but it has to be one of the most hotly contested play-offs ever with all teams involved separated by just three points and all had a live chance of topping the division on the final day of the season.

But Jay has experienced promotion at a higher level and was, in fact, the man to score the goal that sent Exeter City into League One following a decade in the fourth tier thanks to a 2-1 win over Barrow in 2022.

The Grecians are now heading into their fourth straight season in League One, while then-captain MJ soon departed St James Park following Matt Taylor's exit to manage Rotherham United and the arrival of Gary Caldwell as his replacement in the City hot seat.

It felt like a strange move at the time, but Jay cited the desire to have a nice long contract as a key factor in his decision to move to Colchester United in 2023.

Matt Jay struggled badly at Colchester

He should have, based on what we saw at St James Park from Jay in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, been the U's best player, and he was smashing in the goals for the Grecians, scoring 36 goals in 99 appearances in the 10 with the armband in those two campaigns.

However, it didn't work out like that, and he made just 39 appearances in two-and-a-half years before making a shock return to Devon in January, dropping all the way down to the National League South to play for the Gulls.

He scored seven goals in 19 regular-season appearances, including a wonderful long-range strike against Truro to keep them in the title race up until the final day.

Obviously, that level is streets behind where his former club Exeter are right now but, watching their struggles to create and open up opposition defences, many Grecians are left wondering why Jay was ever allowed to leave and how effective he could be if he was still around now.

The departure has been made even more baffling by Caldwell's obsession with creative/attacking midfielders in the No.10 role who have been brought in on loan but flatter to deceive.

Jay could be the solution to Exeter's problems

It felt like Jay's lack of height was a problem for Caldwell, and that's something that clearly can't be helped, but if Matt Taylor, a man obsessed with defensive solidarity, could create a space in his side where Jay could captain and star, then surely Caldwell could too?

Over the last couple of seasons, City have taken Ryan Trevitt (twice), Joe White, Kamari Doyle, Amani Richards, Joel Colwill and Luke Harris on loan and, while some are clearly very talented, none got anywhere near to having the impact that Jay had in his last two full seasons at City.

It's time for Caldwell to eat some humble pie and get Jay back to St James Park this summer.

The 27-year-old clearly joined Torquay to head back to his native Devon with his young family, and it would be outrageous if he's forced to stay in the National League South next season if Torquay don't go up through the play-offs with them kicking off their post-season campaign this weekend.

Some players just work at Exeter City and MJ is a man with a lot of credit in the bank after captaining the side to promotion.

He should never have been allowed to leave and whether Torquay go up or not, this is a golden opportunity to right that wrong and get him back to St James Park.

Who knows, he could even be the man with the attributes and aptitude to make Caldwell's toothless attack fire at long last.