When I first saw the Eric Bailly to Arsenal rumour my initial thought was no way, we do not want or need another Manchester United flop, however, on reflection, I am of the opinion that he may well be worth signing.
I watched Bailly against Paris St Germain and he was woeful but he should not be judged on just that one game because if that was the case we would have no team left after the games against Everton, Crystal Palace and Wolves.
The Ivory Coast international has clearly not had a great time with United since signing for them three years ago for a cool £30 Million but let’s be honest, they are a dysfunctional lot at Old Trafford and players that have failed up there over the last few years can be given another chance under the right circumstances.
United signed Bailly when he was just 22-years-old, well away from his prime and still a work in progress, he was bought for a significant sum of money and by all accounts was a success in Spain with Villarreal.
What this means to me is that we can sign a player that can easily recapture his previous form for a sum of money far less than what he is probably truly worth and that our manager is familiar with him from his time in Spain as the Sevilla manager.
We clearly need defenders I am not sure anyone would disagree with that and as Bailly is right now he is not an obvious choice but his age, raw talent and value makes him a player we should seriously consider buying.
I agree with your article but what you fail to mention that he injury prone so no thanks.
Big fat NO! We shouldn’t consider him at all. I’ve watched him play many times and he lacks the technical ability to play for a top club. His passing, ball control and other technical aspects of his game are not up to the standards of a top team, he is overly aggressive and he lacks composure which i think is one important trait of a top CB. We and man utd are where we are because we both continue to spend on limited players while man city and liverpool smartly pick the right players. Just pay attention the the other top teams in europe and look at the qualities their center backs possess. Check the difference, we bought mustafi, man utd bought baily, liverpool bought van dijk and man city bought laporte. I know both man city and liverpool spent more money but i’d rather we spent more on quality than save money to buy rubbish players.
Baily’s injury record has also been terrible so why would we add another injury prone player to our squad especially when we’ll be helping out man utd out by taking one of their deadwoods. So i say, arsenal should stop being lazy and scout for the right players that will improve us and not stagnate us even further.
If what you said is true, we shouldn’t chase him
Just wanna say that he has only one season left on his contract, therefore I believe Arsenal might be able to get him for a merely 20 M or swap him with Mustafi
I’d prefer a towering CB like Van Dijk and Koulibaly though, but the new CB should have less error moments
Swap him with Mustafi? I don’t think man utd would take Mustafi if we paid them to take him lol
On what basis did you initially label Bailly a United flop?Take a look at how his career has shaped up at Utd before making such judgements. If anything he has been mismanaged and is low on confidence. Had he been playing this way when they signed him the first season he could’ve been called a flop but if you look at how he was playing at the time he was showing signs of a world class player.In terms of ability he is easily Man Utd’s best CB and I can’t fathom why when fit he hasn’t been given enough chances.Would I take Bailly?Yes, but I would rather if Arsenal signed Ibrahima Konate because he is everything we need at this moment.He is the real deal and will be worth every penny we spend on him.
We could say Mustafi was mismanaged as well kev, because he has been consistently creating high defending stats in the last three seasons despite his ridiculous errors
Konate looks like the towering CB we need. We require a tall goalscorer(s) in set-pieces since Giroud left
I’m a huge fan of Konate. He looks like the next great France national team centerback.
So kev, you’d take baily even with all his injuries, it will only get worse at arsenal.
You raise a very good point when you talk about his injury record.I’m not sure if it was the same at Villareal though.I’d prefer we signed Konate because he is absolutely everything we need in a CB and he can come and learn a bit from Sokratis or Koscielny.
he will make a good 3rd choice…like his pace and physical
Pace and physicality is good but look at the whole package, injury prone and lacks technical ability.
The main asset which Bailly has is pace which unfortunately is lacking in all our defenders with the exceptions of Bellerin, AMN and possibly Mavroponas.Pace in itself is not enough to convince me to spend £20m+ on EB and like Kev I would much prefer Konate.I’m afraid the likes of Monreal, Kocielney and Socrat is are past their best and Kolasinac does not impress me at all.Clearly a big clear out is needed throughout our side and it will be interesting to see how Emery conducts his transfer business during the summer months.In this respect friends who are Fulham fanatics assure me that Chambers has been”very impressive” for them this season and with his versatility I will be surprised if Emery decides to sell him.
Grandad I have watched Fulham a few times and agree with your friends. Chambers has done very well. Hope he comes back and is at least on the bench next season.
When will Arsenal ever learn? We keep buying overrated okay players for big money just because they played for big clubs. We just seem to keep going for castoffs that are not wanted by other big clubs or their own clubs. Ozil, Sanchez, Mkhi, Auba,l and even Laca even if I rate him higher than any of the above players etc. Now Bailey?
Let’s go for players that we need not just average so called Big Name players.
The more you accumulate these players that are insufficient to requirement at their previous clubs then you are asking for trouble. They all come with their massive flaws that will keep hindering our progress etc.
For example:
Ozil is known for being lazy, anonymous, weak and a pushover.
Sanchez is known for being an individual player, he mostly goals for glory first. He loses the ball so much, needed 5 opportunities per given time to make a good pass.
Mkhi is known for being inconsistent since moving to England.
Auba is just a more advanced Walcott, needs 5 clear chances to score one goal. And he is one dimensional to me. Can’t hold up play, useless outwide, can’t dribble etc. Seems to only be good at running, inbehind and when we are struggling to get inbehind the opponent he is as useful as my great grandmother in the team.
I like Laca very much as he seems to have a variety of aspects to his game. But he hardly ever score enough goals per season etc.
So with all these flaws in our big money players, why do we get surprised if they keep disappointing season after season? No wonder the team always looks strong on paper due to overhyped so called Big Names, but in reality it is an imbalanced bag of fckery.
I say stop this nonsense of buying subpar so called big Name Players that other big clubs want to get rid of etc. Just buy players that balance the team. I would rather go for small name players like Torreira than big name full of flaws like Mhki, Ozil etc.
Goonster that is hilarious! For instance: ‘Auba can’t dribble’. Please watch the last game again. Both he and Laca can dribble and finish. Both need to be on the pitch at the same time. If we stop defending and ATTACK in ALL our remaining matches then we can salvage something from this season. If not then at least we went down fighting and not with the usual defensive wimper we often display! We are the Gunners! So let’s go in with all guns blazing and not a meek and mild ‘scared of the opposition’ attitude. Let them worry about us for a change!
I think Bailey needs to take a step down and try to build his reputation up by working under a coach who knows how to set a team up defensively. He could be good in that type of setup but am not sure if he’s good enough to start in a team that wants to chase titles. So he can accept being a squad player at a big club or he could drop down a peg or two. Personally I don’t want him, too much money, his physical qualities can be good but he’s not shrewd enough with anticipation or small differences that can matter, Sokratis is better than him, always has been. Koscielny also was a much bigger name, we have these two so why would we want Bailey when we need to improve drastically. I could be wrong, a lot of people did admire him for a time, but this is how I see it all same.
Also, I liked what Lupe had to say, I go along with much of what had he said.
Having watched Bailly a lot on TV only in the main, admittedly, I say thanks but no thanks. He is no better than what we have and that is damning. Not in a million years for me! It is so many years now since we have had anywhere near even an adequate defence that I have virtually given up hope, with Kroenke so tight fisted, of EVER again having a proper defence. There is not a single outfield defender at the club who is reliably top class and also mostly fit. NOT ONE!