According to recent rumors from the French media site L’Equipe, Olympique de Marseille was interested in signing Manchester United defender Eric Bailly on the January transfer deadline day, as their coach Jorge Sampaoli wanted to bolster his defensive options.
Bailly, on the other hand, was uninterested in spending the next six months in France since he has his heart set on a move to AC Milan. AS Roma was also interested in signing the 27-year-old defender, with Jose Mourinho in particular.
Bailly moved to Manchester United from Villarreal in Spain in the summer of 2016 for a fee of over £30 million. Despite Mourinho’s belief that he has the potential to be “one of the best around,” it would be correct to say that injuries have severely affected his career.
The central defender has made 113 appearances for the Red Devils in the last six years, with the majority of them coming in Cup matches.
Furthermore, since the signing of Raphael Varane last summer, Bailly has fallen behind captain Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof in the pecking order.
As a result, even if the Ivory Coast international has extended his stay in Manchester past the current transfer window, there is no certainty that he will play.
Manchester United is in desperate need of a holding midfielder, but they won’t be able to buy one without selling someone. While the departures of Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, Amad Diallo, and others have relieved United’s financial books, Bailly should have been loaned out as well, especially since Phil Jones has decided to stay.
Ralf Rangnick should have been happy to see him go to any other club.
