Nicky Clark

[Napster]

Graeme MacDonald ‏@GMacDonaldFEN 20m20 minutes ago
Nicky Clark formerly of #Rangers is set to sign for Southend United following talks with manager Phil Brown. Source: @SkySportsNewsHQ

 

[Benfleet A1]

Fed up with cutting hair is he?

 

[shrimperton]

72 goals in 217 appearances in the Scottish leagues, mostly lower league too.....I don't expect him to be prolific in League 1 then...

 

[xekyn92]

Pretty good signing in my opinion, he's neither washed up or injury prone which is a refreshing change of pace.

He's definitely a capable goalscorer, i remember a few years ago he won player of the year in the Scottish third tier with QoTS, he scored over 30 goals for them that year if i recall correctly.

I could certainly see him being a solid contributor at this level.

 

[Napster]

72 goals in 217 appearances in the Scottish leagues, mostly lower league too.....I don't expect him to be prolific in League 1 then...

I didn't expect Freddy Eastwood to do well either, nor reserve striker Stan Collymore.

 

[MK Shrimper]

I hope he can cut the mustard and doesn't end up a fringe player. Permanently banging them in the net.


#pungoldminename

 

[Clinton Baptiste]

Sometimes it is the players we dont expect to do well (Freddy, Corr, Barnard first time round) who turn out to be better than the ones we have high hopes for (Hunt, Mooney, Coulthirst, Barney second time round).
The key is will Brown play a system that suits him and will the service from wide areas be improved.

 

[rlb999]

Got to be an improvement on Tyrone Barnett.

 

[thorpebayshrimper]

He's been recommended by Bilel who reckons he's handy with a pair of scissors. Sorry I'll get my coat...:blush:

 

[shrimperton]

I didn't expect Freddy Eastwood to do well either, nor reserve striker Stan Collymore.

Fair point.......but, Eastwood was scoring for fun in better leagues than Scotland & younger, as was Collymore who had Bright & Wright as teammates....a player from the lower leagues in Scotland......time will tell..

 

[Maroon Blue]

At least it will stop the bleats of "why have we not signed anyone".

Looks like a good signing to me aswell if it comes off

 

[davewebbsbrain]

72 goals in 217 appearances in the Scottish leagues, mostly lower league too.....I don't expect him to be prolific in League 1 then...

Andy Thompson. Same sort of scoring record and did well for us in the old Division 2.

 

[xekyn92]

72 goals in 217 appearances in the Scottish leagues, mostly lower league too.....I don't expect him to be prolific in League 1 then...

Stats can be a little misleading by themselves, he had 47 appearances and 8 goals for Peterhead in the Scottish third tier as an 18-19 year old. That isn't too bad when you consider in his second season at Peterhead they finished dead last in the league, 12 points off safety.

He then jumped up a level to the Scottish Championship as a 20 year old, playing for QoTS who were absolutely terrible in his first season with them. He had 0 goals in 30 league appearances (mostly off the bench) but considering he played that entire season in the midfield and his team finished dead last by quite some margin yet again, it's not like he was really put in a position to succeed. To put it into perspective, QoTS' top goalscorer that season had 6 goals, in a 36 game season.

So really, the first year he actually played for a somewhat competent team (not one that was getting battered every week) was the following season in the Scottish third tier. He switched roles to striker and scored 32 goals in 36 league games as a 21 year old and won player of the year.

He then moved to Rangers where he's played a much smaller role than he did at QoTS, but he's still been a fairly solid contributor for them, even in the Scottish Championship. His first season with them (still in the third tier) he only got 14 starts and 10 bench appearances and still netted 9 goals. He was behind the far more experienced Jon Daly and Lee McCulloch in the pecking order who both got 34 starts (and scored 20 & 17 goals respectively).

He has stagnated a little bit the last couple of years, which is why he's moving on from Rangers. The season before last he potted 9 goals in 24 starts in Rangers' first season back in the Scottish Championship, which isn't a particularly stellar return. But considering Hearts & Hibernian were both in the second tier along with Rangers that year, the level of competition was quite good.

I'm not saying he's going to come in and absolutely destroy League One, but he's definitely a competent striker that can produce some goals if the team around him is up to par. Plus he's only just turned 25, so he's still in his prime years which is encouraging.

 

[Greebosan]

Completely off topic but in all the above posts mentioning QoTS, my brain automatically replaced the letters for "Queens of the Stone Age". It's about time we had a feisty musician up front.

In other, more relevant news, there's been some good analysis here, and I obviously hope he ends up being a cut above. The Scottish leagues may be poor, but you can only play what's in front of you, and he seems to have done fairly well - probably a good match for League 1. Hope so, anyway.

 

[tottenham541]

Will take this signing at this very early stage of the season:smile:

 

[RHB]

If he signs then great, as we need some sort of progress on replenishing the squad. I'll save any other opinions until a) He's a SUFC player, and b) I've seen the bloke in pre season games.

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Hopefully he signs, plays 1 game and does **** so I can boo him. Why change the habit of a lifetime

 

[Danshrimper]

That tweet is from a troll account, this isn't actual news it's just someone guessing after seeing our interest being reported.

 

[Firestorm]

he was on 13K a week last year

according to this site http://tsmplay.com/football/rangers-players-salaries/

Bilel was on 10K !!!

 

[kentblues]

Stats can be a little misleading by themselves, he had 47 appearances and 8 goals for Peterhead in the Scottish third tier as an 18-19 year old. That isn't too bad when you consider in his second season at Peterhead they finished dead last in the league, 12 points off safety.

He then jumped up a level to the Scottish Championship as a 20 year old, playing for QoTS who were absolutely terrible in his first season with them. He had 0 goals in 30 league appearances (mostly off the bench) but considering he played that entire season in the midfield and his team finished dead last by quite some margin yet again, it's not like he was really put in a position to succeed. To put it into perspective, QoTS' top goalscorer that season had 6 goals, in a 36 game season.

So really, the first year he actually played for a somewhat competent team (not one that was getting battered every week) was the following season in the Scottish third tier. He switched roles to striker and scored 32 goals in 36 league games as a 21 year old and won player of the year.

He then moved to Rangers where he's played a much smaller role than he did at QoTS, but he's still been a fairly solid contributor for them, even in the Scottish Championship. His first season with them (still in the third tier) he only got 14 starts and 10 bench appearances and still netted 9 goals. He was behind the far more experienced Jon Daly and Lee McCulloch in the pecking order who both got 34 starts (and scored 20 & 17 goals respectively).

He has stagnated a little bit the last couple of years, which is why he's moving on from Rangers. The season before last he potted 9 goals in 24 starts in Rangers' first season back in the Scottish Championship, which isn't a particularly stellar return. But considering Hearts & Hibernian were both in the second tier along with Rangers that year, the level of competition was quite good.

I'm not saying he's going to come in and absolutely destroy League One, but he's definitely a competent striker that can produce some goals if the team around him is up to par. Plus he's only just turned 25, so he's still in his prime years which is encouraging.

Yes very helpful- even with the midfield season it's misleading in that he has appeared from the bench more than he's started overall

Rangers 48 games (plus 54 sub) 23 goals
QoTS 66 games (plus 13 sub) 39 goals

So really without a goals per minutes played calculation can't be sure if this is good bad or indifferent. My sense is that he would be a good signing and will probably score goals in L1- given the number of people who want to try people from the non-league, U21s, youth team, toddlers club etc. then this does not look like a bad bet to me. We shall see- there are a few clubs in for him.