Tutierov has 'huge future' after first Exeter start

Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell said Ukrainian winger Timur Tutierov has a "huge future" after his first senior start in English football.

The 20-year-old, who is on loan from Premier League side Sunderland, had Exeter's best chances in their 0-0 draw at Mansfield Town.

The Ukraine Under-21 player scored in his first two Exeter City games and his first start came in his fifth appearance for the Grecians.

"He's a young player with a huge future," Caldwell told BBC Radio Devon. "He's scored two goals already and had our most dangerous actions.

"It's his first start in league football, so we have to support him and keep working with him, but I think you see the talent and the threat that he poses whenever he's on the pitch.

"He gives us something and he can be happy with his performance, but that final outcome he has to keep working on and make it better.

"If he does, I keep telling him I think he's got the potential to be a top, top player."

Tutierov represented his country at the 2024 European Under-19 Championships but has still to break into the Sunderland first team having joined the Black Cats from Kolos Kovalivka in 2023.

But he said he is enjoying his experience in League One having trained with Exeter before making his temporary move in the middle of January.

"I'm glad I came to this great environment where I can progress, where coaches are interested in my development, and thanks to them I feel very comfortable and very confident," Tutierov told BBC Radio Devon.

"I'm glad I came to this team because it feels for me like a little family, and I think it's what I need.

"Here it's a different type of football because I was with the first team all the time [at Sunderland] but I didn't play football.

"The biggest difference is obviously the intensity, it's the passion to win.

"Here it's far more different than the games than in the under-21s because most of the season I played for the under-21s."