Jake Young: Spearheading Swindon Town’s Resurgence
A Stellar Season at Swindon Town
Jake Young is having a break-out season at Swindon Town. Bradford had loaned out the young English starlet after a disappointing loan spell at Barrow and an unimpressive stint at his parent club. At Swindon, he is having an unimaginable impact.
Young has scored 9 goals and provided 4 assists in just 8 league appearances for Swindon. It is not just his personal contribution to the team; his presence has improved those around him. Swindon have been at their sizzling best this season.
With Jake Young leading the lines, Swindon Town has scored 24 goals in just 8 games meanwhile his parent club Bradford is struggling in front of the goal. The Bantams haven’t even scored half as many goals as the Robins. In fact, Young has scored just one less goal in the league than the whole Bradford team combined. Bradford have scored just 10 league goals in 8 games.
Young’s impact on Swindon has been immediate. Thanks to their ever-present quality attack this season, Swindon has been unbeaten in the league thus far with 4 wins and 4 draws and sitting at the 5th spot in the League Two table. Bradford on the other hand is languishing in 11 position with nothing much going for them in the league.
Swindon looks like credible title challengers or at least proper play-off contenders, much of it will depend on the consistency that Jake Young can provide to the Robins this year. The start has been excellent for the Englishmen, it is now about keeping consistency in his goal-scoring returns.
Early Days and Entry into Professional Football
Jake Young joined Sheffield United in 2019, after which he joined Forest Green Rovers in 2020. The young starlet was straightaway put in the first team squad. He scored his first goal for the club against West Bromwich Albion in an EFL Trophy tie. Young scored 9 league goals in 51 appearances for Forest Green Rovers.
Stint at Bradford City: Unfulfilled Potential
Due to his age and his potential, Young was attracting interest from EFL clubs. Bradford City eventually signed Jake Young for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract. Despite scoring on his league debut for Bradford and making an immediate impact, he wasn’t given a proper chance in the team.
He made a couple of sporadic appearances here and there in the cup competition.
By January, he was out of the picture as far as the first-team squad was concerned. He scored 2 goals in 7 league appearances for Bradford in that time.
Resurgence at Swindon Town: A Prolific Partnership with Austin
Bradford City asked Young to find new clubs and Jake Young apparently turned down loan moves to a number of clubs. Young was training with the reserves and missed Bradford’s pre-season trip to Spain by the time an offer from Swindon arrived.
Young hit the ground running from game one for Swindon Town. The young Englishmen scored 7 goals in just 4 games in August thus winning August’s Player of the Month for League Two. Young was called an instant hit due to the firing start he made at his new club.
As mentioned, Young has 9 goals and 4 assists this season in just 8 league appearances, and he will likely keep adding to the impressive tally. Add to that he has the veteran Charlie Austin beside him. Austin has done it all and played on all the levels of the English Football League.
Jake Young has been learning a lot from Charlie Austin and it will only help him get better. Austin at this stage of his career is more of a playmaking striker, which helps Jake Young too as he has been benefiting from Austin’s hold-up play and bringing in others into play. All in all, Young is learning from one of the best the EFL division has ever seen.
Bradford’s Loss, Swindon’s Gain: Analyzing the Impact
At least for now, Swindon seems to have gotten the best of the deal. If Young keeps his prolific run going till the end of the season then Swindon can be considered a serious threat to any of their promotion-chasing rivals.
Also if and it is a very big if, Swindon Town does get promoted to League One then Bradford City will be left with an egg on their faces because defensively they have been a pretty sound team till now, it is the offense where they are struggling to make much inroads this season and that is exactly where Swindon are excelling.
On top of all of this, there is a chance Bradford might have to take a cut-price fee for Jake Young in the next summer window because by then he will be entering the last year of his contract and with the way he has been treated at the West Yorkshire club it doesn’t look like he is agreeing to a contract extension anytime soon.
