The story of Kiko Casilla’s Leeds career is like a Shakespeare tragedy. So often the party pooper, he has played for the club during one of their most triumphant periods. He got Leeds promoted but then did something unthinkable.
Signing a player from Real Madrid was always going to raise eyebrows and indeed that’s exactly what happened in January 2019.
This was an eye-catching transfer, but media attention ended up being cast his way for all the wrong reasons.
That has been the story of his stint at Elland Road and two years on from when he first signed on the dotted line, he needs to be ousted from the club.
Leeds have ferociously stuck by the experienced Spanish goalkeeper in the last 12 months but he has been nothing short of a disastrous signing.
He was a marquee addition under Andrea Radrizzani but in simple terms, the Italian should be fuming with him. Casilla has not lived up to expectations and has been a considerable PR disaster.
Whether it was making individual errors on the field of play or racially abusing Jonathan Leko – something he was quite deservedly charged for – he’s never really got things right in Yorkshire.
Remarkably, the Spaniard is still at the club and rather shockingly has captained them since that incident with Leko.
Casilla has had more than one chance to save his Leeds stay but that has been one chance too many. He may not have played a single Premier League minute this campaign but he is still burning a colossal hole in Radrizzani’s pockets.
He is on a salary of £40k-a-week at Leeds, and thus, has cost the club over £5m in wages. For someone who now isn’t even playing, that doesn’t look great from a financial point of view.
Speaking about him in early 2020, Noel Whelan typified the 34-year-old: “He’s an accident waiting to happen at the moment. His body language is terrible and you can see the defence are losing confidence in him, they’re fearful and thinking, ‘can we trust him anymore?’”
That quote could have been used several times during his stint in England. Rarely has Casilla held accountability for his mistakes and he’s made them time and time again. For such an experienced professional, that isn’t good enough.
Now is the perfect time to finally sell him. Leeds have been linked with West Brom stopper Sam Johnstone and also QPR ‘keeper Seny Dieng - either would be an upgrade.