Devon Live reports this morning on Exeter City’s frustration that Fulham pulled out of a proposed loan move for Luke Harris just before the end of transfer deadline day.
The talented teenage attacking midfielder was all set to follow in Jay Stansfield’s footsteps by making a season-long switch to St. James’ Park but the Whites pulled the plug at 10.45pm on Friday – with the collapse of Joao Palhinha’s move to Bayern Munich forcing a change in the Premier League club’s approach.
The Welsh youth international was eager to gain more experience with the League One club and the formalities of the loan move were all that remained to be completed following extensive talks between all the parties since July. But Fulham’s failure to source a replacement for Palhinha before the German transfer deadline left the Portuguese midfielder in no position to feature for Marco Silva’s side at Manchester City, so Harris was drafted into Marco Silva’s matchday squad with doubts over captain Tom Cairney’s fitness.
Cairney barely lasted a quarter of an hour at the Etihad and Harris, who had been all set to feature for Gary Caldwell’s Grecians at Burton Albion, stepped off the bench to face the champions instead. Caldwell was gracious about how the deal fell through at the eleventh hour when he spoke to the media after City’s 1-0 win at the Pirelli Stadium:
““We wanted at least one more player in on loan and very late in the window was happening until 15 minutes to go. To be honest, we were fighting for a player who played in the Premier League today so we are looking for targets which will make us a lot better and unfortunately we just missed out. It is frustrating. All the forms were sent and ready to be signed and then it got pulled at 10.45pm. But we have to move on, I felt for the player as he was fully committed, but I was delighted he got on with his parent club.”
