NICKY BAILEY

On a Charlton Athletic website:


It looks as though Nicky Bailey has played his last game for Charlton as skysports.com is reporting that Norwich City and Southampton have both made moves to sign the midfielder.

Bailey ended another impressive season with 12 goals to his name and following our failure to return to The Championship another season in League 1 is unlikely, even more so given the fact our need for money in great and Bailey is one of our top players so he'll be worth something.

Middlesbrough have been long-term admirers and Nottingham Forest are also interested as are Premier League side West Bromwich Albion but the reports are stating that only The Canaries (who won the League 1 title) and The Saints (who will be favourites to win it next season) have made any serious approach at the moment.

Phil Parkinson is keen to retain our top talent, however our financial position and failure to achieve promotion will dictate otherwise. Unfortunately some of these better players that Parkinson also wants to keep are out of contract, which will make retaining them even harder.

According to the Echo Bailey is to move to Middlesbrough for £1.5M.

Don't think we can really compete with that fee plus a championship side, Surman would be less. don't think much will happen until world cup is over.