Grecians set for £5 million windfall

Former Exeter City striker Ollie Watkins is moving from his current club Brentford to Premiership side Aston Villa in a move that will bag City around £5 million in sell-on fees.

It's Exeter's biggest pay day, and will be a useful windfall at a time when matches are still being played behind closed doors. The club, along with many lower club teams, is thought to be losing huge amounts of money during the coronavirus crisis. 

Watkins was a St James Park favourite; a popular home-grown Devon boy. Aston Villa have broken their transfer record to sign him from Brentford on a five-year deal. The striker travelled to Birmingham on Tuesday night ahead of the big-money move, which eclipses the £22m Villa spent for striker Wesley from Club Brugge last year.

It is understood the club are to pay an initial £28m fee for Watkins, potentially rising to £33m in add-ons. Villa have beaten city rivals West Brom to the goalscorer's signature and moved for Watkins after Bournemouth rejected their bid for Callum Wilson, who eventually joined Newcastle.

The deal for Watkins also represents a record sale for League Two club Exeter City, who have cashed in a seven-figure sum thanks to a sell-on clause on their former academy product following his move to west London for less than £2m in 2017.

There were a number of clubs reportedly interested in securing Watkins' signature, but the striker said that the influence of Dean Smith - who he had previously worked under at Brentford - played a pivotal role in his decision to move to Villa.

Watkins told Villa TV: "I'm delighted, it's a massive club. Dean sold it to me, really. I'm definitely excited to get back working with Dean, I'm really looking forward to it.

"He sold it to me as soon as I met him. I told my agent I really want to get that sorted as soon as I heard they were interested.

"I'm looking forward to working with him and Rich (O'Kelly), they gave me a lot of confidence playing under them at Brentford. Hopefully they can do that again now.

"It's been a long time coming but I'm buzzing it's done now, I can't wait to get going. I cannot wait to wear the famous claret and blue in the Premier League. I want to do something special here and score some goals."

A new striker was top of Villa's shopping list this transfer window and Smith believes the 24-year-old will be a big success in the Premier League.

"Ollie has developed into one of the most sought-after strikers in the country and we are looking forward to seeing him show his great qualities in an Aston Villa shirt," Smith said.

"He is a hugely determined character who has both the ability and personality to succeed at the highest level."

Watkins scored 26 goals for the Bees last season as they missed out on promotion in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final against Fulham.

Brentford remain braced for offers for some of their other best players, notably Said Benrahma, who was also attracting interest from Aston Villa as well as West Ham.

Villa have already completed the signing of full-back Matty Cash on a five-year deal from Nottingham Forest which could be worth up to £16m.

The rise of Ollie Watkins

"I am a big admirer of Ollie, I like him very much," Paul Tisdale, Watkins' former manager at Exeter City, told Sky Sports.

"There are so many players out there with great ability who have a bad attitude but Ollie has got everything. He has the ability and he has the perfect attitude. He has the perfect personality really.

"But when he arrived on the scene as a young professional, he was no different to any other young player, he was thinking about what he was going to do when he received the ball.

"Most of the game is off the ball. It is what happens on the turnover or when the ball goes out of play. Are you standing in the right place at the right time and thinking the right thing?

"A football player might only touch the ball 20 times in a game so where is he moving for the rest of the game? What is he thinking? How does he visualise what is coming next?

"With Ollie, it was something very specific and something very technical in terms of his application of the game. He had to work out where he was going to fit into the game. I call it psychological repositioning."

© Sky News 2020