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Jordan Moore-Taylor and Paul Tisdale both believe that Exeter City is the premier club in the South West for youngsters to join.

The duo answered a question during last night’s fans’ forum at City over the standard of young players coming through from the academy at the moment, with Ethan Ampadu and Ollie Watkins hitting the headlines last year and Jack Sparkes seemingly next on the conveyer belt of talent at the Grecians.

Moore-Taylor says the dynamic of clubs has changed from when he was a youngster, when Plymouth Argyle were the club of choice to join, and believes the standard is higher than when he was coming through the youth ranks.

Read below to see their full answers to the question.

Jordan Moore-Taylor: Well they’re better than I was! I think every year the lads coming through get better and better, that’s a credit to the club and the players they manage to attract. When I first started off at the club as a nine-year-old, Plymouth was the go-to club, but now you speak to young kids and everyone wants to sign for Exeter City.

That says a lot about the club. You get the chance here – there’s no other team where you get the chance to show what you can do other than Exeter City. I think that says a lot and the coaching you get here shows in the players are coming through. You’ve only got to look at Ethan Ampadu and Jack Sparkes, who’s only just left school, being capable enough to play amongst the first team. I can’t say you’d have had that going back five or six years.

Every year they’re developing and it’s scary to think how good the nine-year-olds are going to be when they’re fit and ready to play men’s football.

(Image: Pinnacle)

Paul Tisdale: I think Jordan’s being very modest. He’s a fabulous player and of all the players we’ve had come through the academy, he’s one of the best of them. I just don’t think he looks like what people think a centre-half should do in order to play in the Championship. If he was Spanish, he’d probably be in the top league.

In this country, to be a centre-back people tend to think you need to be six foot three and a bit ungainly, when actually he’s got a lot more. Football’s not that complicated and I think Jordan’s very modest – he’s certainly comfortable to play in League Two, if not League One or the Championship, he just doesn’t look like a Championship centre-half, sadly, although I think he’s better than most of them.

We’ve had so many players coming through the academy. I think there’s a number of reasons why the production line is speeding up with better quality players – it’s the mean average, it’s not one or two because we’ve had terrific players who’ve come through before, like Dean Moxey, George Friend or Liam Sercombe. There’s been lots of good players who’ve come through but now it’s the quantity of them and the mean average – it’s not just one, there’s a number every year.

That average is going up and up and up and it all comes back to that commitment to do it. You hear so many clubs say they’re going for a youth policy but it takes years. It takes 10 years to even get to the starting line – you can’t do it in one or two years as you’ve got to attract the nine-year-olds, and you can only do that if the parents are convinced that that club is right for their young chap, who’ll spend four nights a week there during their teens and then they’ll get to a first-team decision, made a professional and, when they get to that point at 19 or 20 and it’s not all been a waste of time because the manager will play them if they’re good enough.

Not only will they play them but, when they’re having a bad time, he’ll stick with them and keep playing them, like we did with Ollie Watkins when he had his ups and downs. You only do that if you commit – off the back of that commitment the academy will then have the confidence to do it.

(Image: Pinnacle)

It’s led from the board right the way through and everyone commits to it and that’s why it takes 10 years.

Jordan’s absolutely right, there’s no other choice now but to go to Exeter City if you’re in the South West because you know it’s the right environment, right culture and, when it comes to the crunch, you’ll get selected. A player leaves and before the club looks to buy another player or sign a player, they look to their own players first – there’s not another club who does it or comes close.

Jordan’s very modest but he’s one of those one per year that we had – the difference is now that we’ve got more Jordans, they’re more plentiful. Plus they’re all left-footed somehow, I’m not sure why.

We’re very lucky to have that commitment. In order to have the coaching and the opportunity, you need to commit, as it will go right through the club. That’s the reason and that’s the beauty and upside of our model – there are some parts that are very frustrating and some that are enormously rewarding and satisfying, and that’s one of them, it needs to be said.