This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
According to The Sun, Manchester United are ready to exercise an option which would see them extend Eric Bailly’s contract by one year.
What’s the word?
The Ivory Coast international has been out of action for the Red Devils since suffering a knee problem against Tottenham back in the summer in pre-season, and his current deal with the club expires at the end of the campaign.
Despite his troubles, The Sun claim United are ready to stop Bailly leaving on a free, and will take up their option of a further year on the 25-year-old in the coming weeks.
The report further claims a source revealed that the club have been “very prudent” in ensuring players don’t run down their contracts, and that “for the next year, at least, we will box him off and see how his playing time fares over the rest of this season.”
Waste of money
At what point do United simply go ‘enough is enough’? Bailly’s injury hell has been hard to watch, particularly for a centre-back who, in the times he has gotten out onto the pitch, has performed reasonably well. As per Whoscored, in his debut campaign at Old Trafford after Jose Mourinho signed him for £30m, he averaged an impressive 2.4 tackles, 2.4 interceptions and five clearances per game in the Premier League.
But that was more than two years ago. Since then, the Ivorian has been beset with injury after injury, and as per Transfermarkt, has already missed a staggering 62 games for the Red Devils. Whilst simply adding one year on to his deal doesn’t seem like much, his reported £80k-a-week contract will continue to be an albatross around United’s finances. The club are effectively paying someone who you wouldn’t bet on playing on a regular basis.
With Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof seemingly Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s established partnership at centre-back, and with academy product Axel Tuanzebe waiting in the wings too, United have an abundance of options in the position. They should really be ruthless and cut their losses on Bailly, and quite simply, move on.
