GREENWICH TIME's Sports Editor
Peter Cordwell looks back on last week's play-off disappointment, and the man at the centre of the deciding action.
A COUPLE of years ago or so I was having a drink with my mate Dave at his beloved local in Sydenham, the Bricklayers Arms.
At some point during the evening Dave mentioned he’d be going to a Southend United home match the following Saturday.
Southend? Yes, said Dave, mainly to watch the son-in-law of the pub’s landlord who played in midfield for them. Oh, interesting, but to tell you the truth the name didn’t register, as the names of Southend United footballers tend not to.
It was a long time later that I began to realise that the player involved was Nicky Bailey and that he had moved on to Charlton Athletic and, indeed, been very successful at The Valley.
He was the 2008/09 Player of the Year and, although I can’t quite make out the words, Charlton fans’ fondness for him extends to some kind of invitation to meet their wives.
It was Nicky, of course, who missed the shoot-out penalty against Swindon Town that consigned the Addicks to another season in the “third tier” of English football. He was inconsolable at the end of the match and is presumably still suffering from the miss.
At times like this, of course, most of the talk is about money lost by the club in not going up. We have seen
other clubs go out of business.
But maybe it’s a good time to look at it differently. Maybe it’s time to regroup as a club; as local people working for an institution that means so much to Greenwich as a whole; somehow get off the mad money merry-go-round and create a club even more ntrenched in the community; get £10 million players off our minds.
Nicky Bailey always gives 100 per cent.
Dave says he’s totally unassuming, a devoted dad to three children and still plays golf with his mates outside of football. Unlike some, he didn’t go missing when Charlton went down. And don’t forget he made it from non-league football. Nicky Bailey is not only the player whose miss kept Charlton where they are.
He’s also the way forward.
This article will appear in Tuesday's edition of Greenwich Time
Comments
I hope somehow, someway he stays and put's to right the dreadful memory of last week.
Come on Nicky..................you've got unfinished business.
I think he is limited and isn't going to scale the heights of the game, but he is a local lad who gives his all, doesn't kick up about being played out of his favoured position, and always puts a shift in for his team.
If there is one thing we can learn from this season, it is even if our budget is drastically reduced, it is still possible to carve together a competitive team if your acquisition policy is astute. Good honest professionals with the right attitude, such as Semedo, Bailey and Dailly, have been a credit to our club, and no small co-incidence they have been the fans most favourite players.
AFKA, I wish you didnt suspect! I also think he is limited but would be the king pin of a competitive team.
Assuming there are no changes in the Clubs structure I think the Board should make Nick and Semedo the right offers to stay.
I think he is destined for top level championship but local so Reading or QPR :)
As for coming from Non league, he also came from Fulham's academy.
wish we could keep him, but thats the price to pay for not getting promoted.
Oh really.............and the substance/authenticity of this piece of riveting news is?
He was not as mobile and lacked his normal speed.
Oh really.............and the substance/authenticity of this piece of riveting news is?[/quote]
Sorry, I missed the bit when I signed up that everything has to be explained.
It was a brief chat with someone I have known for years who works within the club, not in any great/important role, but it was a conversation and he mentioned it had been doing the rounds at the training ground.
There you go, still inconclusive but I only had a bit of time to look at the site earlier and this, I thought coincided with the topic.
What AFKA said. Bailey's been a credit to us and if he goes, he goes with my best wishes.
I know others will mourn his loss terribly if he goes, personally I think now may be the time to sell as we need the money and he's probably got the highest value of all our players on the open market. For what it's worth, I don't think he irreplacable - as AFKA says he's a lad who's worked his way back up from non-league and there are others out there just like him available for not a lot of money, all it needs is some prudence in the transfer market (admitedly easier said than done).
I know I'm in a minority, but I'd rather keep Semedo and Racon because apart from anything they won't fetch as much money. I suspect we may lose all 3 however.
I assume that was his last performance in a Charlton shirt.
For me it depends how he goes. We may need to sell, and at a high price. I just hope he doesn't repeat what happened at Barnet and Southend. As long as he doesn't do that, he leaves with my best wishes.
If we get decent money, for our best asset if limited player, there are plenty of others who'll come in who can do a job in league one. But can we afford even that?
PMSFL
lol
every time someone makes a remark someone will ask source , who said it blah blah blah ...
keep the gossip rumours whatever coming
great attitude and makes the most of his ability unlike some , shame his time at our club has coincided with the worst footballing period in our entire league history ... sad times
He probably is no more than a championship player, but he's a very good championship player. Scored a tasty number of goals in a dire Charlton side during our relegation season. I can see several top half sides considering a decent bid in the hopes of securing 10-15 goals from midfield.
Bailey's problem is that behind the goals, which are headline grabbing, he's not got a lot except work rate and attitude. Nowt wrong with that of course, you'll not get far in football without hard work, but if you look at someone like Charlie Adam at Blackpool, he has a far more alround game (such as a good range of passing) to complement the goals return that many strikers would be pleased with. That, I think, is the difference between a very good championship player and Bailey who can hold his own, but couldn't be relied upon to regularly boss games like, say, Kinsella did.
Hopefully you are right and that headline figure of goals will pursuade someone into taking a bit of a punt on him for decent money because I think those underlying weaknesses do make him expendable for the right money.
The key is going to be finding a good replacement, be that a straight replacement or by adapting our playing style, and getting a striker in who will score the goals that Bailey would have (and hopefully half a dozen or so more).
The big question there, as ColinTat says, is do we have the finances and the coaching/scouting ability to make that a reality?
And rightly so.
Semedo was a Pardew signing. and has turned it to be a very good one.
Some managers must be thinking he could do a job for them.
Pardew paid, I believe, £400k for Racon ......... but then wouldn't play him; what was that all about?
He's since played some very good games for us but otherwise flattered to deceive.
I wonder how his worth is judged right now?
Of other Pardew signings remaining at Charlton, McLeod will possible command a fee, but only a fraction of what we paid.
Moo2 will no doubt do his level best to see out his contract, knowing no other club will get near matching his current wage.
Youga, also had his contract renewed during the Pardew regime.
If he was fit, he may have an acceptable transfer value.
Apart from selling Hudson, Luke Varney was also sold at probably about a third of what Pardew paid for him.
Same with Andy Gray.
Iwelumo was signed on a free, but generated £500k.
Like Dowie before him, not just on big over generous contracts but transfer fees too - just count the money that man Pardew frittered away .......
It's bad the penalty miss will be our last memory of him but I wish him well wherever he ends up (apart from Millwall or Palace).
He could play at a higher level, but I'm still not convinced we'd get that much money for Semedo. Charlton fans rated him as our second best player this season yet Bailey was the one who got into the PFA League 1 Team of the Year. So it seems that both inside and outside football (lots of my mates know who Nicky Bailey is, few know Semedo) Bailey has a higher reputation.
I still feel both Bailey and Semedo need a particular type of player alongside them to be part of a successful team. They couldn't drag someone up to their level like some of our former players could.
i hope it stays that way Semedo is a much better player than Bailey
2 different players completely.... and every team at our pony level would love to have both