Exeter City should balk at Cardiff City deal unless they can reach Leicester City agreement | OneFootball

Exeter City have been linked with Cardiff City's Joel Colwill... but do The Grecians need another promising on-loan attacking midfielder?

Transfer rumours are a little thin on the ground at St James Park at the moment, certainly on the incoming front.

However, Exeter City fans have been given one crumb to salivate over in January and it involves midfielder Joel Colwill.

Colwill has enjoyed a good season at Cheltenham Town in League Two since joining on loan from Cardiff City in the summer.

The bad news for Robins fans is that he's done so well that Bluebirds boss Omer Riza has been speaking openly about recalling him and sending the Welshman to a League One side for the second half of the season.

A couple weeks ago he told the press: "For Joel, it would be one of them, you bring him back, is he going to get many minutes ahead of the players we have already got in the building? With their experiences and the amount of midfielders we've got, it'd probably be difficult for him.

"I think playing in League Two and potentially stepping up another league to League One, to push him a little bit more, then he has a full season playing 40 games, comes back in next year and everything can be assessed after that.

"With his performances in League Two... well, for me, anyway, for him to go in at a higher level in League Two, one of the top teams, or even into a League One (team) would be what I feel is better for him at this time."

Exeter City interested in Joel Colwill

Journalist Darren Witcoop recently named the Grecians as potential suitors, while Football League World exclusively revealed interest from City's League One rivals Bolton Wanderers and Bristol Rovers earlier this week.

Colwill has had a good six months in the fourth tier with six goals and three assists in 22 appearances, including 20 starts.

It feels like a bit of a bun fight is developing, but the question for Exeter fans is, do we really need him?

Gary Caldwell likes his on-loan attacking midfielders and we've previously had Joe White, Ryan Trevitt and Luke Harris for half a season each as well as, this year, Kamari Doyle and Amani Richards from Brighton and Leicester City respectively.

Doyle is clearly the better of the two but he's not played a full 90 all season and has started just one of the last 10 games. Even then he was hauled off at half time with City 4-1 down.

Richards has made just six appearances this season and has featured once since the second week of October.

Do City really need another young, potentially inconsistent attacking midfield player on loan who's never been tried at this level?

Joel Colwill deal makes sense if Amani Richards leaves

Many expected Richards to be heading back to the King Power this month because of his lack of game time but, at the time of writing, he remains a City player.

Surely if Colwill is to come in then Richards will be returned and, if all three stay, then questions have to be asked about how Caldwell is using his budget as Doyle's fairly limited appearances will become even less frequent and it looks like he's just stockpiling players.

City are crying out for someone to put the ball into the back of the net, and Colwill's haul of six would put him one clear of the Grecians' current top scorer Millenic Alli.

But it's a big step up from League Two to League One and, with growing frustration over City's poor attacking output, giving priority to developing another young midfielder for someone else over City's home-grown prospects like Jake Richards or Pedro Borges will not go down well.

Do City need Colwill? It doesn't really feel like it, and it's not the No.1 area that needs addressing.

Other than Harris in flashes and Trevitt before his injury, the loan players in that position have flattered to deceiveand it's been to the detriment of City's performances on the pitch and the development of our own young players.

Colwill could come in and he could be great, but it's starting to feel like these on-loan attacking midfielders are becoming a bit of a pet project for Caldwell when what he really needs to focus on is a quality striker.