Exeter City boss Paul Tisdale hopes to keep hold of Ethan Ampadu.

The 15-year-old, who is a target for Manchester United and Arsenal, made a man-of-the-match debut for the Grecians in their 1-0 win over Brentford on Tuesday night.

Tisdale told the Express and Echo: "One thing we do know is that he's exceptionally talented.

"If – and I hope he does – over the short term, he chooses to spend his early years at Exeter, I think we will give him a fantastic opportunity to develop quickly and not just develop his game technically.

"As we know, he'll be capable of playing at a very high level one day but there's no substituting the experience and intensity you get from nights like he had on Tuesday.

"That's one of the big reasons [Exeter academy product] Matt Grimes developed so quickly; I think he got into our first-team at 18 and he had 40 or 50 games or whatever it was before he made his move to Swansea.

"At the moment he has enormous potential and how things will develop will be down to a number of things.

"It will be down to the obvious, things like hard work and application and a large element will be down to circumstances and the environment he chooses to take and change to as time goes on, like football clubs and managers he plays for and works with and coaches that help him along the way.

"He's a very, very good young player with great potential but there's no one way of doing it and, actually, it's a bit of a lottery."