Exeter City will have two big transfer regrets looking at Sheffield United and Saudi move: View | OneFootball

Brad Young might join Kieffer Moore on the list of players Exeter City will regret having let slip through their fingers.

For a club known for its talent identification and development, Exeter City have let a few players slip through their fingers over the years.

The Grecians’ academy produces a steady stream of defensive and midfield players but getting strikers into the first team on a regular basis has been a bit of a struggle over the last few years.

There are exceptions to the rule of course. There's Ollie Watkins and Jay Stansfield, which are two pretty big exceptions admittedly, but fans didn't see the latter play in the red and white at all before his dream loan return and Watkins was an exceptional one-off.

There are high hopes for Sonny Cox but how his career pans out remains to be seen, while Tom Nichols has forged a solid if unspectacular career in the EFL.

Unearthing a goalscoring forward is no easy task and as soon as you get one someone higher up the chain swoops in to take them away just like we saw with Sam Nombe.

But there have been a couple of notable players in recent years who were in Exeter City's grasp but were allowed to slip away before going on to secure big moves.

One is already quite notorious in EX4, the other might be about to challenge him for the top spot. We’re talking Kieffer Moore and Brad Young.

Kieffer Moore spent time at Exeter in 2015

Wales international Moore, now at Sheffield United, has played in the Premier League, at major international tournaments, and for the likes of Bournemouth, Cardiff City, and Ipswich Town along the way.

The striker, now 32, was born in Torquay and played locally for Paighton Saints after leaving the Gulls’ youth academy.

He started out his men’s career at Turo City before finding his way to Norwegian side Viking.

It’s here where our sob story begins. Moore was on trial at City under Paul Tisdale in December 2015 after a lean spell in Norway.

City decided he wasn’t for them and the towering hitman signed for Forest Green before working his way right to the top of the game with several big-money moves along the way.

Brad Young had a trial at Exeter

More recently Brad Young had an unsuccessful trial with City before going on to arguably bigger but certainly more lucrative things.

Young was one of three players who didn’t make the grade in the summer of 2023 but it looks like he's making City rue their error already.

The 21-year-old came through the ranks at Aston Villa and spent last season at serial Cymru Premier winners The New Saints where he went on to bag a handsome 22 goals in 25 games.

That caught the attention of Saudi Pro League new boys Al-Orobah who signed him in a remarkable £190,000 deal this summer.

Aside from the Stansfield to Birmingham City transfer, it was one of the more fascinating moves outside of the big leagues and it will be interesting to see how he goes in Saudi Arabia.

The reported transfer fee wouldn’t have put Young anywhere near City’s top sales, so it’s not a financial regret in his case, it's more of what could have been if he was upfront and firing for the Grecians last season in a campaign where they were desperately crying out for a striker.

You’d have thought a promising then-20-year-old forward would have been a perfect project for Exeter but, whatever the reason, he didn't get a deal at St James and now he’s headed east for ‘life-changing’ money.

Of course, it's hard to compare the Welsh top flight to League One, and he's yet to feature in the Saudi Pro League, but it will be fascinating to see how he develops and how much of a mistake not signing him is or isn't.

We’ll never know what could have been for Young at City but if Gary Caldwell had taken a chance on him then maybe his side could have secured a top-half finish last season and we might be dreaming about even better this time around as the Grecians' search for a goalscoring forward continues.