City have boosted their attacking options with the signing of attacking midfielder Tom Bayliss, who once cost Preston North End £2 million.
The 25-year-old attacking midfielder joins the Imps with more than 180 professional appearances under his belt for Coventry City, Preston North End, Wigan Athletic and Shrewsbury Town. He first came to my attention back in 2018 playing for Coventry, where he burst onto the scene and had a host of big clubs eyeing him.
Bayliss, who has won promotion from Sky Bet League Two and League One, has also represented England at U19 level. The Leicester-born player had five goal involvements for Shrewsbury last season, and ten the previous season, this in a side that often struggled to create chances.
He has signed a two-year contract and believes the style of play adopted by the Imps will suit him.
“As an attacking player you want to be in a team that is expressive and wants to go and win games of football – which is exactly what I’ve come into,” said Bayliss, who appeared 21 times for Preston after his big-money move.
“You also want to play at the highest level possible and I think this club is going in that direction – the club matches my ambition.
“I’ve been in frequent contact with Micheal Skubala as well as Jez George, and I’m looking forward to getting down to work.
“Every time I’ve played at the LNER Stadium as an opposition player it has been hostile, so I’m looking forward to having the supporters right behi
nd me and the team. I can’t wait to show them what I can do.”
Head coach Michael Skubala added “Tom is an extremely talented player, who has shown that he can score and create goals in League One. He also demonstrated with his move earlier in his career from Coventry to Preston for a seven-figure transfer fee that he has the attributes to play higher.
“Tom has shown a desire to come to the club following our first meeting with him and we’ve been in contact with him throughout the summer.
“He has real technical ability, as well as the athleticism to play in our system, and will provide something different to our other players in the group.”
Some fans may remember Bayliss as the player who scored one and assisted another for Coventry when we beat them 4-2 at the Ricoh in our first season back in the league. He bagged against us in December 2022 for Shrewsbury in their 2-0 victory at the New Meadow (or whatever they call it now), and played the entirety of both matches last season.
This feels like a good signing to me. Bayliss has pedigree at this level, but struggled in a poor Shrewsbury side. The hope will be that we can get him on the ball more, pulling the strings behind the front players. It’s almost certainly a move that ends our interest in either Mandroiu or Bishop, as he’ll play in a similar position.
At 25, he is also the second experienced player we’ve brought in, at the higher end of the age scale when compared to our transfer policy in recent seasons.
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