Exeter City "plan" for new signing could leave Grecians with two rising stars: View | OneFootball

Frankie Phillips has been brought in for both his and Harry Lee's development.

Highlights

It’s been a busy summer of transfer business for Exeter City and one of the lesser-celebrated deals could prove to be one of the shrewder ones.

The Grecians are up to nine confirmed arrivals with a mixture of fees paid, free transfers and loans.

Some key positions have been filled, but there’s probably still scope for another defensive addition, given the players who have left this summer, a holding midfielder as backup for Ryan Woods, and the No.9 shirt still needs someone to wear it for the coming campaign.

One area where Exeter City are not short of depth, however, is in goal.

Exeter City's goalkeeping options

Joe Whitworth has arrived on loan from Crystal Palace to be the new No.1, while Shaun MacDonald will continue to provide back-up and that all important social-media content.

Youngster Harry Lee remains at the club and City will be hopeful of securing him a successful loan at a good level which can prove to Gary Caldwell that he’s ready to make the step-up into the first team next season.

There’s also been a new face in the shape of young keeper Frankie Phillips, son of Steve Phillips, who made hundreds of appearances for Bristol City and Bristol Rovers.

Phillips Jnr came through the ranks at Liverpool before joining Southampton, but has recently been plying his trade in the South West non-league scene with Willand Rovers, Bristol Manor Farm and Paulton Rovers.

Why Exeter signed Frankie Phillips

City’s former-player-turned-keeper-coach Kevin Miller, who convinced Caldwell to sign the excellent Viljami Sinisalo last season, has praised the City new boy’s ethic and thinks there’s more to come from him both technically and physically.

Miller said: "He came in for a week in pre-season and did brilliant for 18 years old, worked his socks off.

"Our plan is to develop Frankie as he looks to earn another contract at the end of this one.

"Les [Barrow, Head of Strength and Conditioning] is going to get into him because physically he’s 6 foot 2, but we think if we can get his core and back right, he’ll be another inch taller."

Miller can clearly pick a good keeper when he sees one, but perhaps there’s more at play with Phillips’ signing than just potential.

How Frankie Phillips signing can help Harry Lee

And that element might involve finally getting Harry Lee a full season on loan somewhere in the National League after some frustrating loan spells in the National League South and below of late.

He’s had good reports from his spells away from EX4 but has twice been recalled early in the last two seasons, firstly from Dorchester Town after then City No.2/keeper coach Scott Brown left to join Matt Taylor’s backroom staff at Rotherham, and then last season as a broken arm ended his time at Salisbury in the second half of the campaign.

Before Phillips’ signing, if anything happened to Whitworth or MacDonald, then Lee would instantly have to be recalled to sit on the bench and miss out on further, vital men’s competitive matches.

Now Phillips will be the man recalled to allow Lee to get a season under his belt somewhere and prove he’s ready to take the next step in his professional career.

Harry Lee highly-rated at Exeter City

Lee’s a keeper City have high hopes for and boss Caldwell has admitted there’s still work for him to do to get into the first team.

"Harry is someone with huge potential who still has to work extremely hard to get his career going,” he said.

"He has been out on numerous loans and we will look to loan him out again to get game time, but we believe he still has big potential which we hope he can fulfil this season."

Phillips may have a decent future in the game and, hopefully he can make some solid progress in his blossoming career.

On Thursday, City confirmed that the 18-year-old was joining South West Peninsula side Exmouth Town until January, with Miller revealing that Phillips would indeed be the man recalled if there’s an issue with City’s top two keepers.

He explained: "We’re going to get him out on loan to play at the same level he played last year for Paulton, but he’ll train full-time with us, and if anything happens to Harry or Shaun we’ll call him back to support the first team."

It's very rare that one deal can directly impact the prospects of another player at said club, particularly when they are both goalkeepers. However, this case at Exeter is certainly an exception to the rule.