One of football’s biggest abnormalities this season may well be this: a man who could reasonably be labelled the best keeper in the world, hasn’t played a game of football since January. He’s not injured and he hasn’t been sidelined because his club have better options. I’m not sure there are any better options available.
The man in question is Iker Casillas, a Real Madrid and Spain legend. He has spent 23 years at Madrid and won 143 caps for Spain. He’s been at the top of his game for so long that few would quibble with his status as one of the game’s best keepers. And yet a fall-out with Real boss Jose Mourinho has seen him benched. This in turn, has drawn a question mark over his future at the Bernabeu.
He’s a Real legend, but is too good to spend half-a-season warming the bench. I’m sure he’ll want some assurances that there’s still regular football for him, or he may well start weighing up his options.
Much will likely depend on the future of Mourinho himself. Should the former Chelsea manager move on, Casillas may be persuaded to stay. Should Mourinho stay, Casillas may start hankering for a move.
And should this happen, there will be plenty of interested parties. One of those clubs is Arsenal, who The Mirror claim are ready to launch a summer bid.
This isn’t all that surprising. Arsenal’s goal-keeping situation is a bit of a disaster and has been for some time. Wojciech Szczesny may be back between the sticks, but the confidence has gone. Arsene Wenger questioned his mentality earlier this season and that’s something that tends to stick with you, especially when your a youngster. One more mistake could have a seriously detrimental effect on his career.
Looking at other options may be the best move forward for Arsenal.
Of course, there’s one big obstacle in the way of the Gunners signing Casillas. He’d have a huge price-tag – rumoured to be around £30m, more than double Arsenal’s current transfer record.
And yet, Arsenal have money to spend. This is a problem they need to solve and throwing some real money at it could be the easiest solution. Having somebody like Casillas wearing the number one jersey would pump belief back into Arsenal centre-backs. It could even be the perfect platform to build a title-tilt on (so long as Arsene also buys a world-class forward!)
What’s your take? Can Arsenal really afford to compete for Iker Casillas?
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i dont know where this story has come from but if anyone on this planet thinks that arsenal will spend £30 million on a keeper they need to be recaptured and put away as soon as possible.
Yes,when Wenger is out of Arsenal fc.
Never in a million years with this price tag or half for AW.
Are you serious??? I do not know of any goal keeper who is worth 30 mil.
Its Casillas not any keeper!
we need him
guess my transfer choice
get these players and we can be the champions
GK : iker casillas = sagna +8 MILLION cash
RB : Lukasz Piszczek = 10 MILLION
ATM : cesc Fabrigas = 25 MILLION
ST : Stevan Jovotic = 20 MILLION
CB : Ashley Willams = 12 MILLION I prefer wilams coz he is britsh discent
so I spend only 75 million and I got 5 world class players
No. U have spent probably double that or are they all going to play for nothing throughout their contracts?
When wenger lives the club then we can
30M on a goalkeeper?Absolute rubbish!
Keep dreaming! We need a world class superstar as well as two world class players. i dont really think jovetic can be that superstar to get us challenging again either…to be honest, it will be hard to make 70m work for us?! what do u lot think?
I dont think any club would spend 30 million on any goalkeeper, particularly one over 30.
Keep on willing & collecting valueless player.
we don’t need any superstar
but only need Wenger’s exit.
Wenger is my best best coach ever in making me stressed.Yes we can buy cassilas…in words as usual.
This not happen in football history if it is that club is not arsenal .pleace think with u’r mind
I think that is a lot of money to spend on casillas,it should be deduced,we can spend the rest on other quality players
it cannot happen.
Jovetic is de kind of player we need but casilas I dn’t belive dat
if its casilas, then fine with me
Saying words with no action is good coz wenger had been misleading arsenal fans all over the world.if it’s a case we need jovetic to join Af with cassira.
Makes absolutely no sense spending that kind of money on any keeper. Goalkeeping was not responsible for Arsenal woes this season. The club should look for good defensive midfielders ,and very pacy strikers.
20 better goalies at a third transferr fee and a quarter of the wages