Arsenal and Spurs want Man Utd discard

Kolkata, October 12: Tottenham Hotspur have reportedly joined Arsenal in the hunt for Manchester United defender Eric Bailly who is right now out of favour at Old Trafford.

Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is believed to be a huge admirer of the Ivorian and is planning a swoop for the centre-back in January.

Reports in England claim that the two North London neighbours could now be set for a huge tug-of-war to try and sign the 24-year-old.

Bailly has fallen out of favour at Old Trafford under Jose Mourinho, the man who splashed out £30m to sign him from Villarreal two years ago.

It is still unclear whether the Red Devils would allow him to join a rival, and they would almost definitely look to get back all the money they paid for him.

However, Mourinho is desperate to improve his backline after missing out on a number of targets throughout the summer.

And that could lead to him attempting to use Bailly as bait in an attempt to bring Spurs ace Toby Alderweireld to Old Trafford.

Alderweireld is a long-term target of the Red Devils and was likely to leave Spurs last summer but they managed to retain him.

However, Pochettino might very well sell the Belgian who is unhappy at north London if he could get Bailly included in a deal.

Bailly was a regular under Mourinho and impressed during his first season in the Premier League but found himself frozen out of the side towards the end of the last campaign.

Things have not improved this term as he has started just five times, and was hauled off inside just 20 minutes of last weekend’s 3-2 comeback victory over Newcastle.

The Red Devils finished that game with a makeshift defence and allegedly left Bailly questioning his long-term future.