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Highly-rated youth player Mitchell Clark has under 60 days remaining on his contract at Aston Villa – and rumours are that he has been told he won’t be getting a renewal.
Words by Regan Foy | @FindFoy
Aston Villa seem to have a habit of releasing once highly rated youth prospects – and generally this works out for the club. However, there are a number of examples where players that they have released have either come back to haunt them, or even proven that they can perform within the same, or a higher league.
Talented wing-back Mitchell Clark is out of contract in the summer, in fact, his contract runs out in under sixty days. With other youth prospects like Callum O’Hare already receiving contract extensions – it looks like the youngster who had impressed former manager Steve Bruce enough to earn an extension until 2019, hasn’t impressed current boss Dean Smith or the clubs scouts.
Clark has spent the entire season on loan at League 2 outfit Port Vale, amassing over 3,300 minutes of football across a long season that has seen the Staffordshire outfit dangle precariously close to relegation to non-league football.
The defender, who recently turned twenty, has started 39 of the 46 games on offer at that level, and appeared once as a substitute. His manager at Port Vale described him as a talent that “looks like he’s already played 200 games”.
His parent club Aston Villa are set for a huge overhaul with the squad regardless of the league that they find themselves in next season, and decisions about out of contract players are not at the forefront of the agenda as the side prepare for the Play-Off semi-finals which start next weekend.
Of course, there’s plenty of time for a new contract to be offered, but Port Vale are said to be incredibly interested in Clark’s signature – and there’s rumours flying around social media that the Welsh youth international has already been told that his contract will not be renewed.
Clark is an option on both wing-back flanks, and has played at left-back and at times centre-back for Aston Villa during pre-season friendlies. For Port Vale, he’s played on both sides of the back four. With Neil Taylor currently enjoying the best form of his Aston Villa career and right-back Frederic Guilbert joining from Ligue 1 side Caen in the summer, perhaps the coaches at Villa are considering what’s best for Clark – and that may just be that he won’t get a chance at Villa Park.
What an oversight