NICKY Bailey is today expected to seal his switch to Chartlton Athletic.

The midfielder, who has scored 12 goals in 56 games since signing from Barnet at the start of last season, missed Southend's 1-0 defeat to Cheltenham Town in the Carling Cup first round at Roots Hall last night.

And chairman Ron Martin insisted a deal for the 24-year-old, which is believed to be in the region of £400,000, is close to being completed.

“We expect terms to finalised with Charlton today,” said Martin.

“Nicky declared himself unfit for the game yesterday afternoon and it’s clear that Nicky doesn’t want to be at Southend anymore.

“It’s very disappointing because Nicky’s a good player and we would have kept him if he showed more commitment to the club when we offered him a new contract.

“But he turned the deal down and from that moment onwards he had one eye on moving.”

Bailey was voted player of the season by both the club's supporters and players last term and regularly caught the eye with his impressive energy levels.

That eventually seems to have secured him a switch to the Championship but Martin knows he will badly missed in the middle of the park.

“Of course we will miss Nicky but we will find a replacement for him and we will find someone committed who wants to play for Southend United,” said the chairman.

And Martin also promised that the funds from the transfer would be used to strengthen the existing squad.

“We need to invest more funds in players,” he confirmed.

“We have a thin squad and Steve's happy with the character we’ve got but we need more depth in a number of position and that includes midfield now.”

Anthony Grant replaced Bailey for last night’s clash but Southend are short of midfielders with Alan McCormack ruled out until October after undergoing knee surgery.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren't already missing Alan," said Martin.

“He was on crutches Friday but now he’s walking up stairs unaided so he will be back quicker than people think.

“He’s itching to get back as well and he's the type of person we want. We want commitment and on the back of that they will be rewarded. “But if they don’t show commitment to us and we won’t show commitment to them.

“We took a big gamble on Nick because although we paid £175,000 for him, if we progressed it could have gone up to £500,000.

“But we hope he succeeds because we will get rewarded if he does as we have a number of clauses which makes the fee rise."