Clark is on loan at Vale from Villa until the end of the season.
Port Vale manager Neil Aspin has told Stoke-On-Trent Live that the League Two side will struggle to keep hold of Aston Villa defender Mitchell Clark if a bigger side wants the teenager in January.
Clark, 19, has impressed at Vale Park since joining the club on a season-long loan deal in the summer, starting every single league game for the fourth-tier outfit.
The Wales Under-19 international has turned out in his natural position of right-back, as well as left-back and even on both sides of midfield. He is contracted to remain at Vale until the end of the season.
However, Aspin is more than aware that if a bigger club wants to sign Clark in January, then they will lose the Villa loanee with the Championship club likely to recall him and send elsewhere.
“You could be asking me the same thing up until the last week of January. If a club from a higher league comes in for him and the lad wanted to go, and his agent was pushing for him to go, then there would be little we could do,” Aspin said.
“He will make mistakes, like all the players, but he is a confident lad. If he does make a mistake it doesn’t bother him, he gets on with it and we have been delighted with him since he has been here.”
Clark is in the final year of his contract at Villa, which ends in June but his performances with Vale will surely have been noticed by manager Dean Smith who could offer the defender a new deal.
The versatile ace will be available to leave the club on a pre-contract basis to non-English clubs from Janaury 1, if a new deal is not reached. Right now, he is expected to remain at Vale.
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