Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter is keen to sign Newcastle Falcons duo Adam Radwan and George McGuigan as he looks to rebuild his squad for the 2023/24 season.
Signing Radwan will be a stretch with the winger under contract until 2024, but they are reportedly close on hooker McGuigan.
Baxter had also been keen on Ollie Hassell-collins, but the London Irish winger has reportedly signed with Leicester Tigers.
In another blow to Chiefs, it was widely reported yesterday that Luke Cowan-Dickie has signed a contract with Montpellier.
According to the Mail Online, he's signed a massive contract post 2023 Rugby World Cup, where he will earn more than £300k *post tax* per year.
Baxter lost the likes of Jonny Hill, Sam Skinner and Tom O’Flaherty last summer after being unable to match their wage offers elsewhere due to the reduced £5m salary cap all Premiership clubs are operating under this season.
The potential departure of Cowan-Dickie as one of five next summer means it could be the end of an era at Sandy Park.
In addition to this, the club is under financial pressure to repay government loans the club took out during the pandemic.
According to accounts up until 30 June 2021, the group that runs the club had total borrowings of £28.1m.
Those included a Barclays Covid-19 loan of £5m, a Sport England loan of £6.8m and a NatWest loan of £6.6m.
The club also owed £10m in a bond issue that helped to expand Sandy Park.
FOUR MORE Exeter Chiefs Stars set to depart:
#1. Sam Simmonds
The number 8 has already confirmed this will be his final season with the Chiefs as a move to Top 14 heavyweights Montpellier has already been agreed.
"I knew that that decision of playing abroad, you wouldn't be able to be selected for England, but for me I felt like I'm focused on the here and now," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"I feel like I can still have such an effect in an England shirt, such an effect in an Exeter Chiefs shirt for the next 12 months now, and I think I'm at peace with that decision.
"There's plenty of players that are going to be coming up behind me and I felt that it was the right time to make a decision for after the World Cup to pursue a new life in France, and for my family and for me to experience that because I have loved my time at Exeter, but I haven't experienced anything outside of Devon," he added.
"I feel it was the right decision at the right time and we'll see how it goes.
"We've seen what's happened recently with clubs unfortunately in England, so it's a decision I've thought about a lot, but ultimately felt like I needed to make that decision."
Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, 7 caps) during England Rugby training session at The Lensbury Hotel, Teddington, London on 28 Sept 2021. Photo: Phil Mingo/PPAUK
#2. Stuart Hogg
Following media reports in 2021 that the Scotland and British & Irish Lions back was looking at moving away from Sandy Park at the end of the current campaign, the 29-year-old responded to these claims with a short and concise statement.
He wrote: "Further to recent speculation about my future, I'm happy to say that I will be honouring my contract at Exeter Chiefs and I am massively excited about the future. My family and I are very settled and I'm keen to win more titles here."
However, with the salary cap decreased and Hogg our of contract in 2023, the fullback would have to take a payout to stay at Sandy Park.
Try Celebrations for Stuart Hogg of Exeter Chiefs during the European Rugby Champions Cup Match between Exeter Chiefs and Montpellier at Sandy Park on 11 December 2021. Photo: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK
#3. Jack Nowell
The Rugby Paper report the star winger’s CV is currently doing the rounds in the French Top 14 with the 29-year-old out of contract at Sandy Park at the end of the season.
Responding to the speculation, Nowell has revealed he’d love to stay at Sandy Park, but added he must always put his ‘family first’.
Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, he said: “I won’t go to another Premiership side,”
“I want to stay at Exeter, but I’m out of contract, there’s stuff going on with the salary cap and I’ve got a growing family. And I’ll be 30 after the World Cup. I’m in talks with the club at the moment; ideally I’d stay but I’m not too sure what’s going on. The first thing for me is my family.
“My only option if I’m in England is to stay. France, Japan… I went out to Japan for the World Cup – it was an amazing country. I’d like to give Japan a go over France but, obviously, anything could happen.
“There will potentially be a time when I go somewhere else but my roots are here and I’d always end up back here. At the same time, I am quite ‘out there’ as a person and I like my family to be like that so, if I’m given the chance to experience something else with them, then I have to take it.
"The flipside is, if I can get stuff sorted here and I’m still in a position where I can look after the family. I love the club dearly and my main option would be to stay, if I can get something sorted.”
#4. Joe Simmonds
Having failed to break into the England set-up, brother of Sam, Joe could be tempted by an overseas move if the right sort of offer lands on his lap.
Such was his growing influence within the side that in January 2020, Director of Rugby Rob Baxter made Simmonds captain for the Champions Cup trip to Glasgow Warriors.
By the end of the disrupted season, he would not only lead the Chiefs into two major finals against Racing 92 and Wasps, but he would lift both cups alongside club captain Jack Yeandle.
That double triumph was rewarded on an even higher scale when he was given an MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List.
Joe Simmonds, Captain of Exeter Chiefs converts during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Semi Final Match between Exeter Chiefs and Bath Rugby, behind closed doors at Sandy Park on 10 Oct 2020. Photo: Phil Mingo/ppauk/Gallagher.
