Steve Davis on summer transfer target James Bailey

Crewe Alexandra boss Steve Davis admits he was disappointed to miss out on trying to bring our Academy graduate James Bailey back to the club this summer, but the approach reflected the calibre of players the manager targeted.

Following his release from Derby County, midfielder Bailey elected to move to Barnsley.

Steve told the club’s official web-site: “James was a player we were interested in because he is a good footballer and would have improved us. He was a bit out of reach for us in the end but as I’ve being saying all summer, we have set our targets high.

“James is a good lad and remains popular here and it will be good to see him.”

Another player who could have been lining up for Crewe instead of Barnsley this evening is striker Sam Winnall. The former Wolves trainee trialled with us but didn’t quite do enough to ear himself a contract and he ended up at Scunthorpe United instead. He went on to score 23 goals last season and in the process secured himself a three-year deal at Oakwell.

Steve told crewealex.net: “I had known Sam from his days with Wolves and he came here on a short trial. I just felt at the time that we had enough forward players and he wasn’t quite what we needed.

“We knew he was a good player but I didn’t know where he would fit in and we still had the likes of Pogs and Max here then as well. 

“We didn’t take him and it was just timing. If he had come this summer, we would have probably taken him but that is football.

Steve added: “I must admit that I was a little surprised by the amount of goals he scored for Scunthorpe but he did superbly well and got his move. Now he faces the test of stepping up into League One. The defenders are better and it will be interesting to see how he does.”