Phil Hay has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s The Phil Hay Show about all things relating to Leeds United.
One of the topics that Hay spent a lot of time on was the future of Kiko Casilla after he played in the Whites’ Carabao Cup game against Hull City and was controversially given the captain’s armband, despite still not apologising to Jonathan Leko for using racist language against him, having been found guilty of the charge brought upon him last season.
This led to Hay talking about the former Real Madrid goalkeeper’s future, and he revealed that the Whites have not really made much effort to sell him in this transfer window.
It seems as if Leeds have not made any real effort to get rid of the Spaniard, and that could be because Marcelo Bielsa likes Casilla and rates him.
He said: “There hasn’t actually been any great move to shift Casilla on or to find buyers for him and obviously, that is going to be difficult in any case because of his large wage.
“My understanding [is], as with him playing at Derby at the back-end of last season, is that essentially, [Marcelo] Bielsa wants him around, Bielsa has faith in him, Bielsa seems to value him.
“From Bielsa’s comments today [Thursday], he’s very much giving the impression that the players, en masse, are on Casilla’s side with this as well.”
Do you think Leeds did the right thing with Casilla?
No, terrible decision
Yes, shows they support him
TIF Thoughts…
Casilla was found guilty of using racist abuse towards Leko in February 2020 and subsequently handed an eight-game ban.
To this day, he still has not said sorry, which was why making him captain and putting him in goal for the game against Hull City went down badly with some.
However, it appears as if Bielsa is standing by Casilla and defended him in his pre-match press conference on Thursday, while the 33-year-old made seven saves in the game against Hull on his return, the Spaniard appears to be unfazed by the situation.
Despite this, his selection was controversial, and despite it being suggested that he may leave Elland Road in this transfer window, there has been no real effort from Leeds to get the goalkeeper out of the club, and that could be because Bielsa likes and trusts Casilla.