FC Cincinnati defender Zico Bailey is calm and professional about the club’s looming offseason decision to retain him or not.
“I’m coming up on a contract year so, I’m just fighting for my job at this point,” Bailey said. “Just trying to impress Tyrone (Marshall, interim head coach), trying to impress the new GM, earn the respect of my teammates every day in training and if I get my opportunity, just get the most out of it… I’m just fighting for my job every single day.”
Bailey was brought into FC Cincinnati from the Los Angeles Galaxy academy in December 2019 via trade. He was a domestic acquisition on a homegrown contract and the hope under former general manager Gerard Nijkamp was that FC Cincinnati could acquire Bailey at a low cost and develop him into a high-value player.
Now-former head coach Jaap Stam would have overseen much of the development in that situation after he was hired by FC Cincinnati in May 2020 during the league’s pandemic stoppage.
But with Nijkamp and Stam removed from the situation, Bailey is absent two of the key figures in an FCC tenure that’s seen him make 10 appearances for the club over the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
“I didn’t really see as like ‘oh, the people that brought me in, the people that liked me, they’re gone now,” Bailey said. “I saw it as, you know, it’s a new set of eyes on me. It’s a new chance to make another first impression, so I think it’s almost like a clean slate.”
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Like Bailey, some FC Cincinnati players are out of contract after the 2021 MLS season. Others might be tied down to the team for 2022 and beyond, but they all face the same challenge.
The existing FC Cincinnati roster, which was recruited by a since fired general manager and coached for most of the season by a since-fired coaching staff, must now carve out their respective spots in the 2022 roster, which will be rebuilt and tweaked by newly-hired GM Chris Albright.
More:Chris Albright discusses his plans as FC Cincinnati general manager
At 21 years old, Bailey is one of the younger players in the organization experiencing the added degree of difficulty stemming from the club’s front-office transition. The public appearance of his approach to the situation is a positive one, but others might not take the stress of contract uncertainty as well.
Marshall has alluded several times recently to the tendency of players to prioritize individual aims over collective ones, especially with the MLS Cup playoffs out of reach.
The pressure felt relative to one’s livelihood could be more acute in FC Cincinnati’s locker room as opposed to some of its upcoming opponents. The majority of the teams FCC will face over its six remaining matches are in some level of playoff contention.
More:FC Cincinnati's Brenner lands at No. 14 on Major League Soccer's '22 Under 22' list
Individual wants can melt away when a collective aim is attainable, as it will be in the locker rooms of the playoff contenders FC Cincinnati will soon play against.
Don’t mistake FC Cincinnati’s elimination from playoff contention as the club and its players being without pressures. Reality is quite the opposite.
Marshall said he's deferring to Albright on all contract matters, and focusing his interim coaching staff on the remaining contests.
“How I manage it is by having a general manager, and pointing (the players) in that direction,” Marshall said during a Friday interview. “I only can control the controllables. If the player is on the field, what we want them to do, what they’re producing, what’s their output.
"If they’re playing well because it’s a contract year, that’s what I would hope, that they’re performing well and showing the GM ‘hey, look at me.’ That’s the only thing that I can control. Once they’re playing and we can put them on the field, then hopefully we can get some results. Other than that, just send them toward the general manager. He can deal with that contractual situation. Performances, they can look at me and I’ll determine who’s playing well and who’s not.”
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