How do you decide if a player your team has just signed is poor, or if he’s been misused by his manager? Such is the dilemma at the heart of Nicky Bailey, an attacking midfielder who posed no mean goalscoring threat at Charlton yet has failed to replicate any of this at the Riverside.
Whilst Nicky’s fine play in 2009/10 took place in League One, he posted almost identical statistics the season before when the Addicks were a Championship team, turning out to be one of the few bright spots in an otherwise depressing relegation campaign. Prior to that, he was a key member of Southend United, following his rise through the ranks at Sutton United and Barnet.
On the squad profile at the official Boro website, Nicky has been defined as a ‘goalscoring midfielder,’ which he was until he agreed terms with Gordon Strachan in June 2010. Indeed, a consistent scoring record of around one strike in every four appearances far from sucks, yet he and the net have been on distant terms since he joined us. What’s gone wrong? One theory is that he just ain’t good enough, that Boro is a step too far for a midfielder whose roots are in the lower leagues – maybe that’s where he belongs. The flip side of this is the fact he’s often been played out of position, shoved out on to the left wing, presumably because it’s his turn to play there and as a consequence reducing his effectiveness. He’s also turned out on a number of occasions whilst not fully fit, particularly in the early weeks of 2010/11 when there was a general shortage of players to call on.
Certainly, there’s a strong case to be made in his favour, though whether he can win the supporters onto his side is another matter entirely. Nicky is a ‘Stricken’ signing, after all, one of a clutch of acquisitions in the ‘make or break’ summer 2010 transfer business that saw the manager spend millions for so little return. Worryingly for the player, as a central midfielder he faces stiff competition for his place in the line-up and we now know he isn’t really suited to be used on the flank as a makeshift winger. The future is uncertain, a terrible waste of £1.4m and a dilemma for Tony Mowbray who now has to decide how best to get anything from his player. After all, the abilities that made Nicky worth more than a million are still there. For me, he calls to mind Tommy Wright, the rat-faced winger who banged them in for fun at Leicester City before Lennie Lawrence signed him in 1992, the goals dried up and he was quietly shuffled out to Bradford several years later.
Link
Sounds like it hasn't quite worked out for him so far although Boro have had a terrible season so far.
Comments
Really? I know we're playing well at the moment but I would definitely take him back on loan if we had the chance
Would rather see him on the bench than McCormack at the moment though.
Seriously though they're crap fans. Only too delighted to turn on a player at the first chance and rarely turning up in numbers. Nicky is a very honest and effective player. He's not necessarily a classy one, but there's better players at Boro, playing worse than him.
They seem to forget that they are a crappily supported club sitting at the bottom of the championship who have punched above their weight for a few years on the back of an insanely benevolent chairman.
His weak spot is his passing and ability to hold possession, bit like Gerrard.
I would not have him back at all. He's not as effective as Reidy on the left and Jacko is much better on the ball and can play at left back aswell.
Racon and Semedo are both playing well now and Waggy offers more than Bailey would on the right
He would break up any spirit we as a team have and is not a good captain.
I stand by what I said in the summer - he is not missed
Bailey has his limitations as we all know, but his movement off the ball to get on the end of goalscoring opportunities is probably his best quality. And he can hit a piledriver, too.
To get those goals out of Bailey you have to give him a bit of a free reign and get other players to cover and compensate when he goes AWOL in his own position.
A manager has to pick the team around Bailey's game or not play him at all.
The article plainly says that Bailey didn't fit into the team, nor was he the only one. Strachen evidently 'did a Pardew' and collected players regardless of how they fitted the system or integrated together.
Gordon 'Stricken', lol
He's not left winger but he scored a lot of his goals playing there.
I wouldn't have him back, playing on the left wasn't quite right but we never found an ideal partnership in the middle.
As Oggy said he has his limitations, other players need to cover those, but they clearly can't be using him properly to get goals from him.
Boro I can imagine have far bigger problems like the balance of the squad, confidence and team spirit. They've used a lot of players since getting relegated and replaced a manager only to make things worse. Similar To us in many ways. We've seen it all here in our two relegation seasons.
No doubt playing to his manager's instructions to hold his position and team shape.
I doubt Bailey is helped either by the fact that Boro's last 2 left midfielders were Downing and Adam Johnson.
Love the Gordon 'Stricken' nickname as well.
Spot on in my book , its like when we sold Darren Bent , who was his natural successor? we were spoilt
I loved Bailey when he was here , but doubt he would come back here , and not sure i'd want him back either.
The same could be said for us at times.
As for Bailey at Middlesborough - I think he is easily Championship level but is confidence must be shot and he can try too hard sometimes which is possibly what he is doing at the moment. Maybe a spell on loan would help him and Middlesborough.
I wouldn't have taken him back after the Brentford or Brighton matches, so I'm not going to take him back now we're doing well.
That's not to say he's not a good player, but we weren't able to cover for his sloppy passes and he seemed a very poor captain (which is the type of position he'd assume for himself if he did come back).
I wish him the very best of luck for the rest of his career. From reading that article it looks like Mowbray hasn't stopped the car crash. Maybe he'd be better off if they did sell or loan him.
I'd imagine a lot of clubs would rather like our "disloyal" support after 2 relegations in 3 years, finishing bottom of the Championship by a long way and entering a second season in League One. The mighty Boro (who some think is a step too high for Bailey) manage an average attendance just 1000 or so higher than us despite recent silverware and European finals and being lavished with a number of million pound plus signings.
;-)
Fair point Mort, I probably should have just quoted the "Only too delighted to turn on a player at the first chance" bit.
Bailey was brought up at Fulham, but has the very English disease of going mental when he sees space defensively or offensively. Whilst this often wasn't a problem at Charlton when he played cm, as the option of other selections was so hilariously awful, he could flip most situations around in a second. Can be great when he's scoring, or could just turn a match around like he did against Swindon by passing to the opposition when we had 5 against 2 or 3.
Strachan signed a one paced midget midfield, and midget one paced attack. It ain't hard in the champ to start winning, you need pacey wingers. Let's face it Middlesborough are so anemic in attack because you have midgets playing in your own third, with the opposition not having to bother worrying about you getting in behind them because you're shit and so bloody slow. Bailey was able to score for us in this scenario, because Sam crossed intermittently but when he did it was often excellent. I look thorugh your squad and struggle to see where the goals are created from. It's a sad scenario to think our woeful 2007-08 best first 11 was easily a match for your a Strachan first 11.
Looking from afar the squad Strachan signed for you, has one attribute written all the way through it relegation. It's just quite sickening that a 'football' man was such an imbecile in spending someone elses money.
as we know