Arsenal: Eric Bailly can succeed where Sokratis fails

Eric Bailly is being linked with a Manchester United exit. If Arsenal were to pursue the centre-half, he would offer success where their summer solution to the defensive problem, Sokratis, fails.

When Ivan Gazidis, Sven Mislintat, Raul Sanllehi and subsequently Unai Emery got together in the summer to assess the needs of the Arsenal squad and plan their summer recruitment policy, there was one position that leapt out as a major need.

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Shkodran Mustafi was inconsistent at best in his first two seasons at the club. Per Mertesacker was retiring. Laurent Koscielny was dealing with a long-term injury. Calum Chambers, Rob Holding and Konstantinos Mavropanos are all talented players but are young, inexperienced and risky to rely upon to start regularly throughout a full season. Central defence, therefore, was one of the key priorities of the summer window.

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And so, the new Arsenal brain trust went about their business quickly and efficiently, wrapping up a deal for Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos by mid-June — the transfer wasn’t officially announced until July 2nd but that was a delay on Dortmund’s part, not Arsenal’s. Sokratis turned 30 in June. He had a year left on his contract and so was available on the cheap and he boasted a wealth of domestic, European and international experience. He was a stop-gap solution to the centre-half problem.

So far this season, Sokratis has been precisely what Mislintat and co. hoped he would be. A reliable defender who lacks the athleticism and quality on the ball to ever be a stalwart but can a short-term answer at the position as the younger players develop and Koscielny rehabilitates from injury. But he doesn’t offer long-term security at the position. Far from it.

That is where Eric Bailly comes in. According to the Daily Mirror, Bailly is ready to quit Manchester United after he fell out of favour with Jose Mourinho, slipped behind Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and even Victor Lindelof in the pecking order and struggled to recover from a string of niggling muscular injuries. One of the teams named as a possible destination for Bailly is Arsenal. From the Gunners’ perspective, this is a transfer that makes a whole lot of sense.

Whenever Bailly has taken to the field, he has looked like United’s best defender. Wonderfully strong, powerful and quick across the ground, he is not only athletic in the air but he is excellent at dealing with quick strikers who look to run in behind defences into the channels. He is calm and composed in possession, as well as being more than happy to stride into midfield when he has the opportunity to do so, and because of his recovery pace, he can defend vast spaces, which is increasingly necessary in the modern game as more teams employ a high-pressing scheme.

The only problem that Bailly has had at United has been his injuries, not his play. It was only in April of this year that we were asking whether Bailly was United’s best defender. Yes, signing a player with his injury record would be concerning — he has made only 38 league appearances for United over the past two full seasons. But his talent vindicates the risk. And all this comes at the tender — very tender for a centre-back — age of 24.

That is where Bailly succeeds and Sokratis fails. Bailly is a long-term resolution, not just a short-term, quick-fix answer. The chances of a move ever happening are slim, very slim. But it’s worth a phone call, right?