Jake Taylor is close to sealing a permanent transfer to Port Vale, per Nottinghamshire Live, ending a six-year association with the club.

The 22-year-old spent the first half of the current season on loan at League Two side Scunthorpe United, but he was recalled by Forest last week and is now heading out of the exit door for good.

He will be turning up at a club though that he is very familiar with, having spent the whole of last season on loan at Vale Park before COVID-19 curtailed the campaign.

Taylor netted five league goals in 18 appearances for the Valiants in 2019/20, and it would've been no surprise to see him return to Staffordshire on another temporary deal, however that wasn't to be the case.

But now they've beaten three other clubs to win the race for Taylor, including league rivals Grimsby Town.

A former Manchester United youth player, Taylor has never made a first-team appearance for Forest and it was hard to see him breaking into the set-up due to the amount of midfield players that currently populate the squad.

Did Nottingham Forest sign each of these 14 players for more or less than £1 million?

Any fee for Taylor is likely to be a small one, with a sell-on clause inserted to benefit Forest if Taylor develops into a Championship-quality player and ends up leaving Vale for a decent fee down the line.

The Verdict

This is a good deal for all parties concerned.

Taylor wasn't going to get a chance at the City Ground with the amount of players in-front of him in the pecking order, and he can go and develop his talents at a club who believe in his abilities.

We will probably only find out in a couple of years whether or not Forest will regret letting Taylor go, but he will surely depart with well-wishes from all fans and a sense of being quite unlucky that he was never given a chance to prove himself.