Eddie Baily

Eddie Baily
Personnel
Surname	Edward Francis Baily
birthday	August 6, 1925
place of birth	Clapton ,  England
date of death	October 13, 2010
Place of death	Welwyn Garden City ,  England
position	Half-striker
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1946-1956	Tottenham Hotspur	296 (64)
1956	Port Vale	24 0(8)
1956-1958	Nottingham Forest	68 (14)
1958-1960	Leyton Orient	29 0(3)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1950	England B	3 0(1)
1950-1952	England	9 0(5)
1 Only league games are given.

Edward Francis "Eddie" Baily (born August 6, 1925 in the London Borough of Hackney , † October 13, 2010 in Welwyn Garden City , Hertfordshire ) was an English football player . He was part of the first English World Cup squad in 1950 and won the English championship with Tottenham Hotspur a year later .

Club career

Baily came to Tottenham Hotspur at the age of 14 and was subsequently placed at Finchley FC , where he should develop further. He was finally registered as an amateur at the age of 17 before he was called up for military service towards the end of the Second World War and served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers and also laced his football boots several times for army selections. After Tottenham mistakenly believed Baily would be missing , the club canceled player registrations. When he was discharged from military service in 1945, Baily saw himself without a club and joined rival Chelsea on an amateur basis . When Tottenham learned of Baily's appearance and asked Chelsea for clearance, they granted the request after the circumstances had been explained.

In the post-war season 1945/46, when the Football League had not yet resumed its game operations, he came in February 1946 for a first use in the regional game before he received a professional contract in October 1946. Baily, nicknamed because of his humor Cheeky Chappie (dt. About naughty guy) received, announced on January 4, 1947 against West Bromwich Albion his professional debut in the second English top flight and established itself in the following twelve months in the first team, after moving from Johnny Jordan to Italy, he took his position. In the "push-and-run" tactic created by trainer Arthur Rowe , which was based on the motto "Make it simple, make it quick" , he was one of the central figures together with the second half-forward Les Bennett . This style of play provided for the midfield to be bridged quickly and easily with the help of fast and direct short passing, in particular double passes. In this tactically demanding position, which was not only responsible for offensive impulses, but was also involved in defensive work, his outstanding skills helped him to pass the ball precisely on the first contact . He was also strong at dribbling , so he had the ability to move the ball past the opponent at short or long distance with one quick movement. Baily, who is described as a typical Cockney character and has always been his biggest critic himself, also had a sharp and precise shot that earned him a total of 69 goals in 325 league and cup games for Tottenham.

After the superior ascent in the 1949/50 season, the 1950/51 season started to hit the mark. Tottenham managed the rare feat of directly winning the championship as a promoted team. Baily had an enormous part in this with twelve goals and numerous assists. After defending the title in second place behind Manchester United by four points due to a rather mixed streak in 1952, the table slipped continuously to 16th in seasons 53/54 and 54/55 in the following seasons. In the FA Cup he reached the semi-finals twice with the team, but both in 1947/48 and 1952/53 they failed after extra time in Villa Park in front of about 70,000 spectators at Blackpool FC around the stars Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen .

After the resignation of coach Rowe in 1955, his successor Jimmy Anderson began with the rebuilding and Baily moved to Port Vale after ten years at White Hart Lane in February 1956 for 6,000 pounds . Just nine months later, he joined Nottingham Forest and made promotion to the First Division with the club in 1957. In December 1958 he left Nottingham and let his career end at Leyton Orient , where he was part of the coaching staff after his active career.

National team

Baily played in early 1950 as a second division player three times for the English B selection and then belonged to the 21-man squad when England participated in Brazil for the first time in 1950 . He made his international debut against Spain in the third round match in the storm row Tom Finney , Stan Mortensen, Stanley Matthews, Eddie Baily, Jackie Milburn , when a 0-1 defeat sealed the surprising preliminary round. By 1952 he was in eight other internationals (5 goals) for use, his last game he played on October 4 in a 2-2 draw against Northern Ireland. He also represented the Football League five times in league comparisons between 1949 and 1955 and was part of a selection of the rest of the United Kingdom that competed against a Welsh Federation at the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Welsh Federation.

After the active career

In 1962 he was part of Leyton's coaching staff when the club rose to the First Division for the only time in its history. After direct relegation, Baily returned to Tottenham in October 1963 and was assistant coach of his former teammate Bill Nicholson . In the eleven years of his coaching at Spurs, he built a reputation as a strict but fair superior who demanded the fullest commitment from the players. With the resignation of Nicholson in 1974, his time at Tottenham ended and he took a short time later the position as chief scout at West Ham United . In this role he discovered, among others, the future national player Alan Devonshire . He worked behind the scenes at West Ham until 1992 before retiring.

literature

• Bob Goodwin: The Spurs Alphabet - A Complete Who's Who of Tottenham Hotspur FC ACL & Polar Publishing Ltd., Leicester 1992, ISBN 0-9514862-8-4 , pp. 25th f .
• Bob Goodwin: Tottenham Hotspur - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-567-8 , pp. 106 f .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/eddie-baily-131010.html