Exeter City are seeing Aston Villa hype - top-flight talent has come at a bargain price | OneFootball

Jake Doyle-Hayes put in a strong debut show, adding some grit to Exeter City's midfield on Saturday and for former Villa man could be a Sligo steal.

It's early days, but it looks like Exeter City have got a good one in Jake Doyle-Hayes.

The Irishman joined Exeter earlier this month after Gary Caldwell triggered his release clause at League of Ireland side Sligo Rovers following an initial bid that was rejected.

He came into the Grecians' midfield for a starting debut at the weekend and looked handy as he and his new team ran rings around a Blackpool side who have splashed the cash this summer and are expected to do well in League One.

In the end, City ran out comfortable 4-1 winners thanks to goals from Reece Cole, Jack Fitzwater, Sonny Cox and Jayden Wareham - and that margin could have been bigger if the referee's assistant had been paying attention, such was City's dominance over Steve Bruce's side.

It was a pulsating performance, full of fight, speed and drive that's often been sorely lacking from those in red and white in the last few years, especially at home.

A much-improved performance from Wareham on his second start was the fulcrum and Cole could be set for a huge season in the middle if he can stay fit.

Jake Doyle-Hayes could be key for Exeter

But the new element of spice in the mix was the debut of Doyle-Hayes.

The central midfielder looked set for a promising career at a high level after coming through the ranks at Aston Villa, with plenty of hype around the talent on the books at Villa Park.

However, he only made three appearances for the Midlands club and ended up at St Mirren via a couple of EFL loans before Hibernian snapped him up in 2021; Doyle-Hayes was seemingly a victim of Villa's upward trajectory after three years in the EFL and a near-miss with relegation - they haven't looked back and, despite the hype around the midfielder, he's been forced to carve his career out elsewhere.

Instead of that move being a launch pad to push on, his career came off the rails after suffering a freak ankle injury, and subsequent complications, as a result of a training-ground tackle from then-manager Lee Johnson in 2022.

You suspect he lost the love of the game a little then, and things have got messy with legal proceedings ongoing between Doyle-Hayes and Hibs.

He was released by the Easter Road side in January 2025, making just 19 more Premiership appearances in the following two and a half years since that injury, and headed home to Ireland to get fit, prove that he can play on a regular basis and rediscover that passion.

That he did, and it didn't take long for Caldwell to come calling for the man he worked with while in the backroom staff at Hibs to come join him in the South West of England.

City are well-known as a rehabilitation centre for footballers down on their luck and, while it hasn't worked out for winger Pat Jones, Doyle-Hayes will be hoping he can stay fit enough, play enough games and perform well enough to get moving back up the football pyramid.

Caldwell could have fixed big Exeter problem

We've only seen 71 minutes of the 26-year-old in action for Exeter, but the small sample size is promising, especially as that holding midfield has been a problem position for the Grecians over the last couple of seasons and was again highlighted in his absence with the drab 2-0 Carabao Cup first round loss at Cheltenham Town on Wednesday night.

Ryan Woods looked decent in his initial loan spell but soon fell away after joining permanently last season with lack of legs and general mobility being a huge issue.

Kevin McDonald is decent on the ball but looks extremely cumbersome now and will be 37 in November. The need for a mobile midfielder to sit in and do the donkey work has been crying out loud and clear and now, hopefully, it's been fixed.

A quick glance at Doyle-Hayes' record tells you he likes to get stuck in, with 10 bookings in 18 games for Sligo this season, as well as a red card picked up for a post-match altercation.

Three suspensions in under 20 games is not ideal, but he looks likely to bring some steel to City's lightweight midfield.

He crashed into a couple of tackles, put in a couple of smart fouls (five in total), and was determined to carry on when clattered himself in the second half on Saturday.

He clearly wants it and looks like he's got the bit between his teeth, recording six recoveries and one interception last weekend against the Tangerines.

Maybe it's too late for Doyle-Hayes to get back to the Premier League, but he obviously has the potential, and now the platform, to go up a league if all goes well.

It may be no coincidence that his arrival enabled City's best footballing performance for a long, long time, and it could be that he's freed up a newly-fit Cole to push forward and do damage arriving late into opposition boxes, with City's stand-in captain knowing there are the legs to cover any potential retreat.

The stats show that there's some work to do on Doyle-Hayes' attacking play, but he's not really here for that and with his fee being modest, as all are at Exeter, he could be a bargain buy.

Still, scope for improvement is what we're after and, hopefully, Caldwell's unearthed a gem from his contact book who will have come in on the cheap. The question now is, can he stay fit and go on a good run?

If he, Cole and Ethan Brierley can play a good number of games together in the engine room, with Wareham as a mobile and effective outlet up top, then City could easily silence the many pundits who had them finishing in the bottom four this season.