Why Leeds United and Derby County may always share same Ollie Watkins regret | OneFootball

Ollie Watkins is now an England international worth tens of millions of pounds, and two particular clubs had cause to regret not picking him up.

Ollie Watkins is now an England star who's fighting for the Premier League title, but he came from a humble background and two Championship clubs will regret missing the opportunity to snap him up when they had the chance.

With his club team in third place in the Premier League and into the knockout stages of the Europa League, and with a World Cup coming up this summer, 2026 seems set to be a busy year for Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins.

But while Watkins is now playing at the very top end of the professional game, he comes from a humble background, having started his senior career in 2014 in League One with Exeter City, and his route to Villa Park and the England national team offered opportunities for two clubs in particular to pick him up. That neither of them did will surely be a cause for regret at both clubs.

Ollie Watkins nearly moved to Derby County in the January 2017 transfer window

Watkins was almost missed by Exeter City as well. Born in Torquay, he was turned down by them as an under-9, only to be picked up by them as an under-11. After completing a two-year scholarship with the club, he signed professional forms with them early in 2014 and made his debut for them as a substitute in a 2-0 win against Hartlepool United on the final weekend of the 2013-14 League season.

After spending the second half of the 2014-15 season on loan in the non-league game with Weston-super-Mare, he impressed throughout the 2016-17 season, scoring 16 times for them in 52 appearances as Exeter made it to the League Two play-off final before losing to Blackpool. That summer, he moved to Brentford for £1.8 million.

But Watkins later revealed that he almost never made it to the second half of that season at St James' Park. Speaking after he scored twice as Brentford beat Derby County 3-0 in the Championship at the end of August 2019, Watkins confirmed that he had almost moved to Derby in the January 2017 transfer window: "I could have been a Derby player, but I stayed at Exeter and things worked out for the better here at Brentford. It was just down to money, I think. Exeter wanted a little bit more money at the time, and a loan back, because we were doing well."

Leeds also had the opportunity to sign Ollie Watkins, but went elsewhere instead

Watkins was also a hit at Brentford. Over three seasons with the club, he scored 49 goals in 143 matches for the Bees as they pushed for promotion to the Premier League, which ended in 2020 when they finished third in the Championship but were beaten in the play-off final in a West London derby by Fulham.

But in September 2020, he was on his way to the Premier League regardless. The pandemic had shaken the finances of all clubs, and selling Watkins was a good way of shoring up Brentford's balance sheet, while the amount of Premier League interest in the player made another step up an inevitability.

Aston Villa was his eventual destination, with the club paying Brentford £28 million, rising to £33 million with add-ons. But again, things might have been very different. Leeds United had just been promoted from the Championship as champions, and they needed to strengthen ahead of their return to the Premier League following an absence of 16 years.

Watkins was on their radar, but in 2021 the player told Sky Sports: "Leeds were interested in me, but they signed Rodrigo." The Spanish striker who Leeds went for instead would go on to spend three injury-plagued years at Elland Road, scoring 28 times for them in all competitions before moving on to Saudi Arabia in 2023 after relegation.

Watkins, meanwhile, has been a huge hit at Villa Park. He netted a double-figure tally for them in the Premier League in each of his first five seasons at Aston Villa.

He's also been a hit for the England national team. He scored with his first shot as an England player on his debut against San Marino in 2021, and also scored the 90th-minute goal which sent them to the final of Euro 2024. In total, he's scored six goals in 20 appearances for the national team.

Given the financial mess in which they ended up and the ramifications which followed that, it's likely that Derby have greater cause for regret over missing out on Watkins than Leeds. We'll never know whether his goals might have fired them into the Premier League, or whether sealing a huge transfer fee from selling him on again would have made a difference in averting the financial catastrophe that awaited them.

But what can be said with a degree of certainty is that there must have been some degree of regret behind the scenes at Pride Park as his career continued to blossom. A half-season loan back to Exeter and a little bit more money would have been a small price to pay for the player that Watkins ended up turning into.