Shoots of what Southampton once saw should convince Exeter City of 2025 decision | OneFootball

Caleb Watts is still struggling to break into the Exeter City starting XI but his potential must mean he's offered a new deal.

It could shape up to be an interesting January transfer window for Exeter City.

It’s a notoriously tough time to do good deals, but the club might have a bit of cash to spend following a sell-on windfall from the mega-money transfer of Jay Stansfield from Fulham to Birmingham City on the last transfer deadline day.

You suspect that manager Gary Caldwell would still like another striker, but there’s also a decision to be made in midfield.

Caleb Watts signed a fresh six-month contract over the summer which expires in January and the Southampton academy product will be hoping for an extension to the end of the season at least.

He hasn't featured regularly for City this term, but he has looked decent in his cameo appearances and there definitely is potential within the attack-minded midfielder.

Southampton would have seen Watts' potential

He has clear technical and battling abilities that no doubt caught the eye at Saints and prompted them to offer him pro terms after coming through their youth system.

He made over 60 appearances at various youth levels and featured four times for the full men's team as well, with three of those coming in the Premier League and the other in the FA Cup.

He doesn't turn 23 until halfway through next month, so there's still a lot to come from the Australian playmaker, who also has eight youth caps for his country, and made his top-flight bow against Arsenal as a teenager.

So far, he has two starts in League One with a further three appearances from the bench but he’s also featured three times in the competition formerly known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

That indicates that he's very much in the development section of Caldwell's playing staff and is right on the cusp of graduating from what might be considered as the EFL Trophy squad which, generally, features a good smattering of younger players.

He's been named in a lot of match-day squads recently but minutes have been limited and he would've probably hoped for more game time so far.

Watts has battled injuries

Watts struggled with injury last season, making just 11 appearances in total across all competitions.

However, he’s a player that Caldwell likes and the pair danced a familiar dance last season with Watts initially joining for six months and then extending halfway through the season.

On Watts signing his latest deal, Caldwell said via the club: “Caleb is someone who would say he had a disappointing season last year, and he was hugely unlucky with injuries.

"However, when he was fit and playing, Caleb showed a real tenacity and worked hard, and he is someone who we wanted to offer another contract."

Perhaps Caldwell was expecting Watts to be pushing for more minutes, though he has almost matched last season's tally of 11 appearances already, with nine in all competitions heading towards the halfway mark.

It looked like this could have been a breakthrough season for Watts as he scored the only goal of the game off the bench for City in their opening game of the season at home to Rotherham United.

But since then his most memorable action in the league was picking up a red card deep into jury time at Leyton Orient for a cynical foul to halt a late attack.

Caldwell, a covert lover of the dark arts, probably enjoyed that as much as his match-winning goal.

Caldwell should give Watts a new deal

Watts has shown glimpses of his talent so far and he still looks, at times, like an academy player with those flashes of brilliance that aren't replicated over the course of a game.

He's yet to complete a full 90 minutes in any match this season and that is a worry.

Maybe Caldwell is protecting him, maybe he doesn't have the physicality to mix it in the third tier.

Only time will tell but it doesn't feel like it's time to give up on him yet, especially as last season's injury worries appear to be a thing of the past.

He's not going to be on a big wage and, with Reece Cole still missing lots of games with his own injury problems, it feels like a no-brainer to extend for another six months to see if that Southampton potential can finally be realised at St James Park on a regular basis.