Jose Mourinho's preference for a big man is unwavering.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof all arrived at Manchester United standing 6' 2" or higher. At 6' 1", Eric Bailly may have represented something of a risk - the 5' 10" Henrikh Mkhitaryan took some getting used to.
Yet, beyond this objective requirement, it is Bailly around whom Mourinho's team will undoubtedly base their desired fortitude. At 23 years old however, the Ivorian's journey to this point has been riddled with potential setbacks.
Michael Calvin's No Hunger In Paradise charted the disturbing level of professionalism permeating English clubs at an academy level. Doing all they can to expose children to the rigors of professional football as early as possible, upon Eric Bailly's arrival at Old Trafford last summer, he had only played his first 11-a-side game of competitive football four years earlier.
To put that into some context, until his initial move into the youth set-up of Espanyol in 2011, Bailly had had no real exposure to professional football at all. With his hero Didier Drogba wreaking all sorts of havoc throughout European football, Bailly wouldn't make his professional debut until he was 20 years of age.
In contrast, Phil Jones had 64 Premier League games played by 20 for Blackburn Rovers and United.
Mourinho's first signing for United, the £30 million paid to Villarreal was not seen as speculative whatsoever. Writing in The Telegraph, James Ducker reveals the moment Bailly's potential became a reality for the former Real Madrid manager:
One of the games that is thought to have convinced Mourinho he was a talent worth taking was Villarreal's 1-0 victory over Real in December 2015, when he played right-back and marked Cristiano Ronaldo out of the game.
An astonishing achievement for such a relative newcomer to the professional game, Bailly's move to Villarreal came off the back of helping Ivory Coast claim the 2015 African Cup of Nations; their first since 1992.
Although Bailly suggests his upbringing was tough, 'there are people that live in much more difficult situations.' Starting to work whilst still a child, it was Bailly's responsibility to collect the change from a telephone box in Abidjan.
Having already won the League Cup and Europa League with United last season, Bailly is now certain that they 'are again a world class team'.
