Neil Aspin has confirmed that Chris Eagles is back at Vale Park training with the squad after he left the club at the end of the 2016/17 campaign.
The former Manchester United winger played 20 games for the Valiants after signing on a short-term contract in January.
Still without a club now, the manager is interested in bringing the 31-year-old back to Burslem on a full-time basis.
“Chris trained for a couple of days last week and I had a chat with him, put an offer to him - the ball is in his court,” said Aspin, speaking about the situation.
“You can only wait for so long, so we will see what the next few days bring.
“He’s got a good pedigree, but I’m not bothered about what he’s done in the past, it’s whether or not he can offer something going forward.
“As his fitness is good and he’s kept himself in shape even though he’s not been playing, he’s worth taking on board. It’s down to him.”
Since arriving in October, Aspin has overseen an improvement in form at the club and Vale subsequently sit outside of the bottom two in Sky Bet League Two.
As the January transfer window nears and the manager eyes some changes to his squad, he has appointed a new chief scout to help with recruitment.
“We’ve brought in Gareth McClelland who I’ve worked with for the last nine or ten years, he’s somebody I trust and he’s done a good job for me before.
“Together we’ve managed to get some good players and he’s someone I wanted to bring to the club.
“We have Gareth who’s based up north and Jamie Hand who’s down south, so they are going to split it.
“They have solid knowledge of non-league as well which I think is important - it would be silly to not look at players which are hungry from that level.”
With a scouting system in place, Aspin will have the support of Jamie and Gareth when it comes to signing new players.
The manager believes that is crucial if the club want to succeed, as without the correct type of players in the squad, it would be difficult to progress and achieve targets.
“My job or the job of any manager is always going to be dependant on what players you can get on the pitch,” said Aspin.
“The recruitment of them is obviously key, you need to get it right. As long as we’ve done our background research and we’ve got a good knowledge of those who we’re bringing in, it will help massively.”