The Athletic goes behind the scenes with Exeter to find out how meticulous planning fuelled their rise up the League One table in 2024
There’s a picture on the wall of Gary Caldwell’s office that instantly catches the attention. It’s a half-and-half photo — from his days as a player, in the 2012-13 season — which perfectly captures the highs and lows of football. The top picture shows a dejected Caldwell, knee to the floor and surrounded by his team-mates, after a late-goal 3-2 defeat to that all but confirmed their relegation from the .
Their squad, at this point, was threadbare following the sales of key players in the summer, and injuries exacerbated the situation. Such was the crisis that defender Cheick Diabate was used as an auxiliary forward in that Bolton match, but that, like everything else during that period, didn’t seem to work. “ was a disaster. We were already on a bad run. We’ve just lost 7-0 — it’s crisis time,” Caldwell says before flicking to the next slide.
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