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Port Vale want to keep West Brom defender Kyle Howkins

Port Vale boss Neil Aspin wants to bring Albion centre-back Kyle Howkins back to Vale Park next season.

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Kyle Howkins, left, playing for Albion's youth side.

The 21-year-old has impressed at the League Two side since joining them on loan in January after a disappointing spell with Cambridge United in the first half of the season.

He has one year left on his Baggies contract and Vale want to bring him back on loan again next season. But Aspin says upheaval at The Hawthorns could make that tricky.

"I would like to keep him but it is very difficult,” Aspin told the Stoke Sentinel. “The uncertainty with who is going to get the job at West Brom is obviously one factor.

“If they do decide to loan him out, can they loan him to a club higher than us in the pyramid? And, do we have to compete with anybody else at the level we are at to get him to come here?

“So, it is not an easy task and I wouldn't expect a decision to be made on him until we are getting to the back end of July.

“We have to prepare and bring in other players to the club. But he is somebody that I would like to bring in if I can.”

Howkins impressed in the same division on loan at Mansfield Town last season when then-Stags boss Steve Evans tipped him for a bright future in the game.

And Aspin has been pleased with how he’s progressed at Vale.

"The main thing is he has improved from when he played the first game at Swindon,” added the Vale manager. “He has got better and he has got the physical presence which you need, you certainly need to have some height in the team.

"He has been an important player for us so we were disappointed when he had to miss a couple of games through injury.

“But we are not working him too hard. He is training and hopefully he will be able to play on Saturday."

Howkins is not the only defender impressing out on loan. Centre-back Jack Fitzwater, 20, has swiftly become a permanent fixture in League One Walsall’s team and has scored two goals in his last two games for the Saddlers.

Full-back Kane Wilson, 18, is enjoying a run in the Exeter City team at the moment and 19-year-old Dara O’Shea has helped Hereford FC win the Southern Premier League title to pick up the phoenix club’s third successive promotion.