Bailey will flourish with Gerrard at Aston Villa – Price
THE LAST time Steven Gerrard saw Leon Bailey, the Jamaican winger put a sweet finish on a Europa League victory for Bayer 04 Leverkusen over the Englishman’s Glasgow Rangers team in 2020. The next time he sees him, it will be at Aston Villa where Gerrard has taken over as coach. Football analyst Andrew Price is predicting that Bailey will flourish under Gerrard’s tutelage.
“I believe that Leon will flourish at Aston Villa with the advent of Steven Gerrard taking over,” Price said on November 12, noting Gerrard’s work in taking Rangers to an undefeated 20202021 season.
“They brought in Steven Gerrard and he has really turned that bunch into a good, good functioning football club. They went unbeaten last year in the Scottish Premiership,” Price recounted. After reporting that Gerrard had taken all his backroom staff from Rangers to Villa, the European champions, he added, “I think this can only continue the development of Leon Bailey and he couldn’t find a better coach to have taken over after the separation from Dean Smith.”
Smith, who brought Bailey from Leverkusen to strengthen his squad following the departure of talisman Jack Grealish, was fired last week after a run of bad results.
Gerrard, the former Liverpool and England captain, has overseen the improvement of Jamaica’s Kemar Roofe at Rangers and Price expects the same for Bailey.
A PLAYER WITH FLAIR
“Steven Gerrard, by his own nature, is a player of flair so he would like a player of flair and that Bailey is indeed and I believe he can only utilise him as much as he can, playing him on either flank, whether left or right, because that’s where Bailey is most comfortable,” Price analysed, “but I think it will continue his development and despite the loss of a coach, I’m sure Bailey will be happy that somebody of the magnitude of a Steven Gerrard is now coming to the club as the gaffer.” Before his departure, Smith was easing the 23-year-old Bailey past some niggling injuries with appearances in the English Premier League as a substitute. On September 18, Bailey scored his first Aston Villa goal with a thumping left foot strike in a 3-0 win over Everton. Unfortunately, he limped off with a quadriceps strain.
Given what Gerrard saw when Bailey scored an 88th-minute goal in a 1-3 loss by Rangers to the German club last year, Price reckons the Jamaican international doesn’t have to worry about losing his place in the Villa team. “I believe he has overcome the injury now so hopefully, it’s a clean sheet for him with Gerrard and we can look for good things in the future,” Price concluded.