There were no guarantees that there would be another team that was willing to sign him and give him more minutes. For example, Real Betis were linked (weakly; no strong interest) to Bailly a few weeks back, but the local media from Seville ruled out the Bailly signing due to a lack of funds from the club (i.e. they could only sign him as a free agent). No other club was really linked with him, so maybe Bailly had a change of heart? I, like you, was expecting Bailly to leave, so this contract renewal was a surprise to me. With that said, do I think that it's a bad decision? As long as we sign a new CB, I'd be okay with Bailly sticking around. If not, then we're in trouble. I'd have the exact same view if we let go of Bailly and brought in just one new CB; we need 4 CBs to be able to compete on all fronts.