QPR followed Brentford FC transfer trick - but £500k swoop fell flat at Loftus Road | OneFootball

QPR and Brentford both launched transfer raids on Exeter City in the summer of 2017, but the two deals had very different outcomes.

It is fair to say that Exeter City are a club who have become known for producing top talent over the years.

Exeter may have frequently bounced between League One and League Two over the past few decades, but many players who have come through the club's famous academy have gone on to play at much higher levels.

Josh Key, Jordan Storey, George Friend, Ethan Ampadu, Archie Collins and Jay Stansfield are just some of the recognisable EFL names who have enjoyed plenty of success after starting their careers with the Grecians, and even for those who were not academy graduates, St James' Park has proven to be an excellent place to develop.

As well as those mentioned above, winger David Wheeler and striker Ollie Watkins are two examples of players whose careers greatly benefitted from their time at Exeter, and both earned moves to the Championship in the summer of 2017 as they joined Queens Park Rangers and Brentford respectively.

However, while Brentford reaped the rewards after taking a gamble on Watkins, the deal for Wheeler did not work out quite as well for QPR.

Brentford struck gold with Ollie Watkins, Exeter City transfer gamble

After progressing through the club's academy, Watkins scored 26 goals and provided 17 assists in 78 games for Exeter, with his most productive season coming in the 2016-17 campaign when he netted 16 goals and registered 12 assists in 50 appearances in all competitions.

Watkins' form was crucial to the Grecians reaching the League Two play-off final, but as well as missing out on promotion after losing to Blackpool in the final at Wembley, they suffered a further blow as the striker departed for Brentford shortly after for a fee of £1.8 million.

Given that Watkins had never played at a higher level than the fourth tier, the deal was something of a risk for the Bees, but any doubts were quickly put to bed as he scored 11 and 12 goals respectively in his first two seasons at the club.

Those were respectable returns for a player who was still relatively new to the Championship, but Watkins took his Brentford career to a whole new level in the 2019-20 season as he scored a stunning 26 goals in 50 appearances, stepping up to become his side's main man after Neal Maupay's move to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Watkins formed a lethal partnership with Bryan Mbeumo and Said Benrahma to fire the Bees to the play-off final, but although he suffered Wembley heartbreak for the second time in his career as Thomas Frank's men were beaten by Fulham, he did not have to wait long for his Premier League opportunity.

After three successful years at Brentford, Watkins reunited with his former manager Dean Smith when he joined Aston Villa in September 2020 for a then club-record fee of £28 million, which could rise to £33 million with add-ons, and Exeter received a healthy sum of £4 million from the deal thanks to a 15% sell-on clause.

Watkins has continued to go from strength to strength since his move to Villa, and not only has he been one of the most prolific strikers in the Premier League in recent years, but he has also established himself as a regular in the England squad, with the highlight of his international career coming last summer when he netted a late winner against the Netherlands in the semi-finals of Euro 2024.

QPR did not experience Brentford success with Exeter City raid

While Watkins played a starring role in Exeter's run to the League Two play-off final in the 2016-17 season, Wheeler arguably had an even more impressive campaign as he scored 21 goals and provided nine assists in 46 appearances, meaning he averaged nearly one goal every two games.

After such a remarkable season, interest in Wheeler from higher levels was inevitable, especially after the Grecians failed to win promotion, and he made the move to QPR for a fee of around £500,000.

That price looked like something of a bargain for the R's, but unlike Watkins, Wheeler found the step up to the Championship a tough one, and he made just nine appearances in an injury-disrupted debut season at Loftus Road, scoring only one goal in the process.

It was, therefore, little surprise when Wheeler was loaned out to League One side Portsmouth in the summer of 2018, but his spell at Fratton Park was cut short in the January transfer window, and he then reunited with his former Exeter manager Paul Tisdale at MK Dons, who he helped to automatic promotion from League Two after netting four goals and registering two assists in 19 games.

Wheeler performed well for the Dons, but it was not enough for him to force his way back into contention at his parent club, and after returning from Stadium MK, he departed QPR on a permanent basis to join Wycombe Wanderers on a free transfer, meaning the Hoops were unable to recoup any of the money they paid two years earlier.

The 35-year-old reignited his career with the Chairboys as he scored 19 goals and provided 13 assists in 209 games during a five-and-a-half year spell at Adams Park, with the highlight of his time at the club coming in the 2019-20 season when he was part of the squad that won a historic promotion to the Championship under future R's manager Gareth Ainsworth.

After a brief spell with Shrewsbury Town in the second half of last season, Wheeler recently announced his retirement from football to become a sports psychologist, but as he reflects on his career, he will certainly be keen to forget his underwhelming spell at QPR.