Besiktas are looking elsewhere for another centre-back despite agreeing personal terms with Eric Bailly, indicating that the deal could well and truly be off.
Fabrizio Romano reported an agreement on personal terms with the Ivorian centre-back, with the Turkish giants keen to bring him on board.
This was just two days ago, and the Italian journalist also stated that the next step was to begin talks with Manchester United to agree on the best exit solution.
This doesn’t have seem to progressed in the way many thought it would – with a further update from Romano indicating that this deal may very well not go through.
Eric Bailly to Besiktas could be off
Romano once again took to Twitter to update football fans on the current Besiktas centre-half search, suggesting that they are now looking at Emanuel Aiwu from Cremonese.
The club have approached the Italian side with an opening bid for the defender.
He also goes on to explain that this is down to the fact that the Turkish club are seeking out Aiwu’s signature due to the fact that talks with Man United for Bailly are stalling… indicating that it’s unlikely the two will now strike up a deal.
MORE UNITED STORIES
Why didn’t the deal go through?
Romano suggested that ‘talks are stalling’ indicating that the two couldn’t come to an agreement for some reason.
Our best bet is that it was about the price tag. United will have wanted to recoup even a little bit of that £30m price tag they paid for Bailly back in 2017.
However, given his notorious injury record over the past couple of years, it was likely that Besiktas were playing hardball. Probably rightly so.
They also probably indicated that it’s worth a little more cash to go for a defender that can, well, stay fit. Bailly is a great player when he’s on the pitch, but it’s really hard to cement yourself as a top centre-half when you have an injury record as bad as his.