Port Vale manager John Askey wants to keep Jake Taylor “for another six months” after the midfielder’s impressive form on loan. Taylor left Nottingham Forest on a temporary basis over the summer to get first-team football and has been enjoying himself at Vale Park.
The 21-year-old has scored & created two goals in six games for the Valiants. As per WhoScored, he’s made six chances, averaged 24.3 passes-per-game with 75.3% accuracy, won 29% of his aerial duels, boasts a 100% dribble successs rate, has a 20% crossing accuracy and has averaged a tackle or interception every 34 minutes.
Askey is desperate to keep him, telling Stoke-on-Trent Live (h/t Nottinghamshire Live): “He has done enough that you would want to keep him for another six months. The problem you have got is that if someone is doing well then teams from higher leagues might want to take him.
“What the situation then becomes is, if he does go to a higher league then would he get the games he would get at Port Vale? Would he have the same game time and would he enjoy it as much as a player?
“He has done really well, I think everyone can see that and hopefully he will keep progressing. He does things like when he drops his shoulder and lets the ball run past him and gets into good areas which a lot of other players can’t do.
“Now he looks capable of scoring goals but not only that but he works hard for the team and wins the ball back as well.”
Forest will be glad to see one of their players doing so well on loan, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be considered for first-team football upon his return to the City Ground. Taylor is impressing in League Two, but he would have a greater challenge acclimatising to the Championship.
The likes of Ben Watson, Samba Sow, John Bostock, Alfa Semedo and Ryan Yates would provide competition for places too. Nevertheless, Taylor is doing all he can at Vale to impress any watching scouts.
Askey’s men are 10th in League Two with 17 points from 12 games, having won one and drawn two of their last three. They’re just three points adrift of the playoffs and could find themselves in the top-seven with a win over Macclesfield Town on Saturday.
