Exeter boss Paul Tisdale says Ethan Ampadu should not leave the club if he is to continue his fast development.
The 15-year-old has been linked with a possible move to Manchester United or Arsenal and was impressive against Brentford on Tuesday night.
But Tisdale believes Exeter is the place for the youngster as he would be guaranteed regular first-team football that will help him improve.
"One thing we do know is that he's exceptionally talented," he told the Express and Echo.
"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."
