Job cuts at Exeter City as fans give club second loan

Exeter City are one place above the League One relegation places

Exeter City are to make a second round of redundancies as the financially-troubled League One club looks to cut more costs.

The Exeter City Supporters' Trust - which owns the Grecians - has loaned the club an extra £200,000 - on top of the £400,000 it lent earlier this year.

The financial issues come after the club overspent last season, leading to chief executive Joe Gorman and chairman Nick Hawker stepping down over the summer.

The losses came despite the club receiving money from sell-on clauses or transfer fees for players such as Ethan Ampadu, Ollie Watkins, Jay Stansfield, and Millenic Alli in recent years.

"The most important thing to us is that we can pay our staff and our players and that we can meet our obligations to the tax man," general manager Clive Harrison told BBC Radio Devon.

"Where we've been in the last year or two is that we've taken our eye off the ball a little bit, because we've had that extra money we haven't managed that in a way that we should do as Exeter City.

"We were under a period of time there where we were investing to grow.

"I think we set our sights too high there and Gary (Caldwell, men's manager) agrees now is where we are as a football club, and Abbie (Britton, women's manager) with the women's team. We all understand as a football club what is achievable."

Owned by their supporters since 2003 after being on the verge of going out of business, Exeter's fan-owned model has seen the club climb from what is now the National League to the third tier.

But in a time where wages and transfer fees are rising, fan-owned clubs such as Exeter and AFC Wimbledon are struggling to compete with clubs that have wealthy owners who are willing to write off millions of pounds in spending.

"Football's evolving," Harrison added.

"Exeter City raised their playing budget by £1m in two years while everyone else is doing it by £3m or £3.5m - the highest playing budget in the league is £19m.

"It's just not at our level and Gary's been really good in finding other ways of improving our on-pitch performance that doesn't cost so much money."

The financial issues facing the Grecians mean they will not have any budget to expand the playing squad in January unless some players leave.

It is hoped that the loans the Trust has given to the club will be turned into equity, increasing the shareholding Exeter City fans have.

But Harrison says the club - and its fans - have to decide how they want to approach the future if they are to stay as a competitive side in the English Football League - which could involve selling a stake in the club.

"It feels like we have to evolve now, definitely.

"I think we do have to be realistic. We're realistic in the fact that we can't guarantee selling a player every year to fill the gap so there's only so much money you can bring into the business.

"We have to get back to a sustainable level of spend, we hope to do that for early next year so that we don't have the pressures we have on cash flow.

"It does have to evolve in one way or another, and it's not ultimately for me to decide that, it's for me and the board, I think, to put those options in front of the Trust."